( 57 ) 



ON MIGBOPUS AFFINIS (Gkay & Hakdw.). 

 By ERNST HARTI^r.T. 



DR. EEICHENOW has* described some Swifts from Tunis as Mici-opu.'i 

 koenigi sp. nov., for they were first discovered in Tnuis bj' our friend 

 Professor Koenig, as (hily recorded by him in the Journ.f. Orn., 1892, pp. 361-364, 

 and by me in the Cat. B., xvi., p. 455, under the name of Micropiis affinis. 



Fortunately the Tring Museum possesses two fine specimens, collected by Herr 

 8]iatz on the Djebel el Bleda in Tunis, and on comjiaring these again t with typical 

 si)t'cimens of the so-called Cypsehis galilejoigi.i from Palestine, they proved to be 

 qiiite identical. It is known that these birds from Palestine diifer from those from 

 many other places, and especially from those from West Africa, by a much lighter 

 and whiter forehead, by the more extended white colour on the throat and paler 

 wings, and therefore they were described and figured in Nanmn/niia, 1855, p. 307, 

 PI. v., and were also kept specifically separate by Canon Tristram (li/'s, 1864, p. 231 ; 

 1865, p. 70; F. Z. S., 1804, p. 431, etc.). 



Dr. Reichenow lias apparently not taken the tronble to comjJare the descriptions 

 and figures of ^^. gaUlejensis or my remarks in Cat. B., xvi., pp. 454, 45.5, or 

 he would have found out that the Tunisian birds belonged to 31. (/alile- 

 jensis, and required no new name. Instead of thus going deeper into the question 

 Dr. Keichenow compared the Tunisian birds merely with some specimens from 

 tropical Africa in the Berlin Museum {Orn. ifonatsber., p. 192), and stated that they 

 diftered " constantly and very considerably," and must bo distinguished not only 

 subspecifically, but as a distinct species. This latter statement surprises me, as it 

 seems to me that he again did not read my remarks in the Catalogue of Birds, or 

 I should think he would have been a little more careful. When I wrote the list 

 of the Swifts in the Catalogue of Birds., vol. xvi., I had (as the list, pp. 455, 450, 

 shows) before me ninety-eight specimens of M. affinis, besides the material in the 

 collections of Canon Tristram, Messrs. Seebohm, Dresser, and Professor Koenig, and 

 it seems rather cool not to refer with one word to the results I gained out of this 

 material, with which that used by Dr. Keichenow cannot be compared, especially as 

 I am not supposed to belong to the " lumping " party of ornithologists, but rather 

 to the " splitting " one. I said (^.c.) thus : '' This species varies very much in the 

 shade of coloration and in size, but these variations do not seem to be restricted to 

 certain localises. In the large series before me I can only notice that birds from 

 Cci/lon, Sikkiiii, and some from Western Africa are darker and liave the tails 

 rather longer. The birds from Palestine have very light tails, like many African 

 specimens that are not from the West Coast. The birds from Palestine show a great 

 extension of the ivhite on the throat and a eery light forehead. They are named 

 galilejensis, and may be regarded as a local race, but cannot be ilistinguished from 

 several specimens from other localities. Perhaps the darkness and lightness of 

 colour is due to the amount of rainfall in their respective countries, as is the case in 



• On. MoiMtsbcr., 1894, p. 192. 



t I had soon the Tunisian birds often before. 



