264 NOVITATES ZOOLOOICAE XXII. 1916' 



Portngnese Guinea as 0. ansorgei (Bui/. B. (>. Club xxv. p. 84). This form, 

 judging by the material in the British Museum, is very distinct, but it requires 

 further study. An adult male from Freetown, Sierra Leone, collected by Major 

 Kelsall, agrees perfectly with the type of 0. ansorgei, but it has a distinct white 

 chiu-spot, and this is even more jironounced in a female from the same locality ; in 

 the female from Zaria there is hardly an indication of the white chin-spot, and it 

 appears to be usually absent in specimens from Senegambia and Nigeria. 



Captain Lynes {Bull. B. 0. Club xsxiii. p. 131) described the Galiun form as 

 0. gnbonensis ; this form is very distinct, having a largely spotted npper surface. 

 Specimens from Bihi5 (Angola), collected by N. Ansorge, appear also to belong to 

 gabonensin, though they are not quite so brownish. A female shot by Dr. van 

 Someren at Butiti, Uganda, seems also to be indistinguishable from the latter, while 

 a male from Entebbe appears to be the same as 0. ansorge/ with a distinct white 

 chiu-spot ! At Nairobe 0. polyzona is not rare. Better series are required to 

 understand the various species and subspecies of this genus. 



130. Passer griseus griseus (Vieill.) 



A couple from Zaria and two from Dosso, west of Sokoto, seem to belong to 

 this form, though the latter are paler on back and shoulders. — About the races and 

 nomenclature of this sparrow see Nov. Zool. 1900, p. 44, Jouni. /". Oni. 1905, p. 352, 

 1911, p. 36. 



131. Passer luteus (Licht.) 



An adult male from Dosso, west of Sokoto. 



It is most interesting to find this north-eastern species in the Western Sudan. 

 It is another instance of the distribution of so many birds from N.E. Africa to 

 Nigeria and Senegambia — in short, of a Sudan fanna extending south of the Sahara, 

 right across Africa. The single specimen is a " mummy," and one can, of course, 

 not say whether a series of skins would show any differences between the eastern and 

 western birds, bnt the bird from Dosso is apparently not different. 



132. Eremopterix * leucotis melanocephala (Licht.). 



(J ? ad. and juv.. Province of Zaria. 



Unfortunately no exact locality or dates given. I only observed this bird near 

 Sokoto and Wnrno, a good deal north of Zaria. 



The specimens sent by Poggiolini are typical melanocephala (Alauda melano- 

 cephala Lichtenstein, \'erz. Doubl. zool. Mus. Berlin, p. 28, 1823, "e Nubia et 

 Senegambia." Synonym : otoleuca Temminck), the lesser upper wing-coverts being 

 all white. This is also the case in every specimen which Riggenbach collected at 

 Kirtaona and Nguiek, near Thies, in the Western Senegal (Jolonj-. In Nubia 

 (Atbara, Shendy, Khartum, etc.) many, nay the majority of males, have a large 

 black-brown patch in the middle of the lesser upper wing-coverts, while others 

 are indistinguishable from the western birds. 



E. leurotis leucotis has the black patch still larger, occupying practically the 

 whole of the lesser upper wing-coverts, and the back is much darker, chestnut- 



• Eremopteri. t (sio.) Kaup, Thierreioh ii. 1, p. 139 (183G— Types : A', otoleuca and crucigera). This 

 name has priority over Pyrrhulauda. It was overlooked \mtil 1902, when Richmond (Proc. U. S. JVat. 

 3Iut. xxiv. p. 682) pointed it out. Sharpe (Haiidl. v. y. 1H6) erroneously credits Bianclii with this 

 discovery. 



