458 XOVITATES ZOOLOCICAE XXIV. 15)17. 



chistan, and Afghanistan, I called it Anthus leucoplirys capins. The Pipits of 

 Africa and India were then very little understood, and their study is very 

 difficult indeed. I was under the impression that the name levcophrys was 

 referable to the forms with a more spotted upperside ; i.e. having pale edges 

 and dark centres to the feathers, and that the name sordidus Eiippell, given to 

 specimens in very worn plumage, and with a poor figure and not too exact 

 description, belonged to the other group -nith uniform back. Since then Neu- 

 mann's very useful notes appeared in Journ. /. Orn. 1906. pp. 231-237. I am 

 now convinced that there are — besides A. riifvhis in its various subspecies — two 

 quite distinct species in Africa, and that one of them must be called leucophrys. 

 The other, which Neumann called nicliolsoni, must be called sordidus ! The 

 specimens Nos. 252, 263, 329, and 330 (see Neumann, I.e. p. 234) must be 

 Riippell's sordidus (cf. Neumann's valuable note and measurements of the 

 types), but Neumann was misled by the bad condition of the specimens into 

 the belief that they were a form of leucophrys. Though forms of sordidus and 

 leitcophrys occur together in South. East, and North-East Africa, they are by 

 no means always easy to distinguish, if in abraded plumage, when these cf the 

 former species are almost uniform on the back ; in fact the only certain char- 

 acter, besides the more spotted upperside, is the longer, straighter, and slenderer 

 bill. These Pipits must therefore be grouped as follows : 



Anthus sordidus sordidus^ nicliolsoni, nyassae, longirostris, hararensis, 

 arabicus, sokotrae, captus, jerdoni, similis. On the other hand A. leucophrys 

 leucophrys, omoensis, saphiroi, zenkeri, vaalensis, angolensis, hohndorffi, gouldi. 



(A series from the Wagar Mountains in North Somaliland agrees v^ith A. 

 sordidus hararensis, hut has, on the whole, the upperside slighflj' lighter, vhile 

 one from Harar is equally pale. To be quite sure about the birds from North 

 Somaliland, it will be necessary to compare a series of freshly moulted specimens 

 with similar ones from Harar.) 



Lanius minor Gm. 



There is no doubt that the specimens collected by Bury, which Mr. Ogilvic- 

 Grant described as " L. yemenensis," are young L. minor. 



Mr. Sclater, while in other cases quite judiciously using trinomials, among 

 the Shrikes and in other cases, where trinomials were equally opportune, used 

 binomials, as for example in the instance of the red-headed Shrike, Lanius senator 

 niloticus. He also went in for much genus-splitting, but not quite judiciously; 

 if he separated L. nuhicus as " Fiscus," L. senator as " Phoneus." L. collurio as 

 " Enneocto7ius," and L. phoenicuroides an " Otomeki," he should also have placed 

 in a special genus Lanius minor with its widely different \dng-formula, i.e. very 

 short first and long second primary. 



Acrocephalus streperus streperus ('V^ieill.). 

 Hajeilah, 2,080 ft., ? 12. iv. 1913. 

 Sclater only mentions a specimen of A. palustris frcm the same locality. 



Cisticola cisticola arabica subsp. nov. 



Cisticola cisticola aridula (non Witherby), Sclater, Ibis, 1917. p. 156 (Yemen). 



Comparing our three specimens from Hajeilah, shot in March and April 

 at an altitude of 2,080 It., and others collected at Lahej, I find that they are 



