12 PROCEEDINGS OP THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 82, art. 10 



FRINGILLARIA IMPETUANI (Smith) 



Emberiza impetuani A. Smith, Report on expedition for exploring central 

 Africa, etc., p. 48, 1836 (between Nu-Gariep and the Tropic, that is, 

 Bechuanaland). 



Two males and one female were collected on Mount Brukkaros on 

 March 22, 1931. Mrs. Sordahl saw several of these rock buntings 

 eating grass seeds and drinking water from a little pool in the crater 

 of the mountain. 



These specimens are in rather abraded plumage. Four similarly 

 worn examples from Cape Province are distinctly more rufous, es- 

 pecially on the head and back. The two groups of specimens appear 

 to be separable subspecifically, but in the absence of topotypical 

 impetuani from Bechuanaland, I can not tell which one of the two 

 groups is the new one. Four birds from the Kasai district, southern 

 Belgian Congo, agree better with birds from Cape Province than 

 from Great Namaqualand. The Mount Bruklcaros birds may be 

 characterized as gray headed and gray naped in contrast to all the 

 others examined. Two females from Etosha Pan and from Kalk- 

 veldt, Southwest Africa, are more brownish than the Mount Bruk- 

 karos birds, but are more grayish than South African or Katangan 

 specimens seen. 



Since this paper was first written, de Schauensee ^° has published 

 on this species and finds the present specimens less grayish than one 

 from Etosha Pan, more like typical inipetmrni. 



"Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, vol. 84, p. 202, 1932. 



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