NOVITATES ZOOLOGICAE XXV. 1918. 435 



The Samar specimen collected by Bourns and Worcester is probably 

 another subspecies, if not leytensis ! Their menagei from Tawi Tawi is perhaps 

 also a subspecies of tliis group, with an orange blood-patch, a white line 

 behind the green pectoral band, and still more grey on the breast, while keayi 

 of Clarke is still more distinct. Messrs. Bourns & Worcester saw also, but 

 did not obtain, a pigeon of this group on Sulu, which may either be another 

 undescribed form or then- menagei. 



On Tibetan Streptopelia orientalis. 



In Bull. B. O. Club, xv. j). 92, 1905, Walton described as a " new species " 

 Turtur Ihasae from Lhasa. He says its upper wing-coverts were dark brown 

 with pale grey edges, not bright rufous, the interscapulium grey, not vinaceous- 

 brown, the sides of the body pale grey, not vinaceous. The description is made 

 from one single, apparently not quite adult bird, and at Gyantse, at the same 

 altitude as Lhasa, Turtur orientalis was found to be common [Ibis, 1906, p. 246). 



I have examined the t3rpe in the British Museum and I must admit that it 

 looks a bit pale, and there is an unusual amount of grey on the upper wing- 

 coverts, but the diagnosis is exaggerated and I have no doubt that the type of 

 Ihasae and the Gyantse specimens belong to the same race, and that they are 

 inseparable from orientalis. There are also in the Tring Museum two skins from 

 Chuksam in the Tsangpo Valley, which are inseparable from orientalis. The 

 description as a " new species " from a single skin, not even confirmed bj' geo- 

 graphical separation, on rather slight grounds, is scientifically unjustified. In 

 certain cases, when one is well acquainted with the local races of a species, a 

 subspecies from a new or well-separated geographical area might of course be 

 described from a single skin, but it is generally best to avoid this, and to await 

 a series, if such is possible. 



The forms of Tympanistria. 



A comparison of the series of Tympanistria tympanistria in the Tring and 

 British Museums reveals two very distinct forms. The sijecimens from South 

 Africa — apparently south of the Zambesi and Cunene rivers — are paler, some- 

 times with a slight greyish tinge, than others from West Africa (Sierra Leone 

 to Benquella, also Fernando Po), and Eastern Africa (sjjecimens from Kaffa, 

 Toru, Entebbe, Baraka, west of Tanganyka, also from the Ituri Forest and 

 from Abyssinia examined), which are all darker, deeper coloured, on the upper- 

 side. The size is very variable, but southern birds average larger, thou£a there 

 is no constancy in this. The name of the southern form is of course 

 Tympanistria tympanistria tympanistria (Columba tympanistria Temminck, 

 Pigeons, i. fam. pi. 36, South Africa, Country of the Kaffirs), that of the 

 northern one : 



Tympanistria tympanistria fraseri {Tympanistria fraseri Bonaparte, Consp. 

 Gen. Av. ii. p. 67 (1854— Fernando Po !)]. 



A Fernando Po specimen in the British Museum differs in no way from 

 West and East African ones. Tympanistria virgo Hai'tlaub (Ibis, 1886, p. 2, 

 from Djanda, E. Equatorial Africa) is an aberrant sjjccimen without metallic 



