142 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



millimeters) of both maxilla and mandible, (2) yellow confined to 

 tip (9 millimeters) of maxilla and extending to lower base of mand- 

 ible, only the upper part of the mandibular base being red. The 

 under wing coverts also vary in that some have wide whitish mar- 

 gins, while others have practically no lighter edges. 



In Kenya Colony the breeding season is during late May and June 

 (two specimens, Kaimosi) and probably extends much later, as Van 

 Someren ^^ writes that he took a bird in December which was just 

 beginning to renew the wing feathers, a postbreeding season activity. 



Besides the bird collected at Hor, Mearns saw 12 individuals at 

 Meru and Kilindini, August 9-10, and 1 at the Athi River August 31. 



Family OTIDIDAE 



CHORIOTiS ARABS ARABS (Linnaeus) 



Otis arabs Linnaeus, S.wst. Nat., ed. 10, vol. 1, p. 154, 175S: "in oriente." 

 Specimens collected: 



Female, Camp No. 1, Errer, Ethiopia, December 13, 1911. 

 Male, Tollo, Ethiopia, December 15, 1911. 



The male (sexed by native collector) is much darker brown above 

 than the female. 



According to Sclater ^' the birds living in the Lake Chad region 

 east to the Nile Valley are of a different race, stieheri Neumann. 

 This is said to differ from arahs in that the crown is yellow and 

 black in the western stieheri and gray and black in typical eastern 

 birds. I have seen no western Sudanese examples and can not pass 

 judgment on stieher'i. A bird from Gabardi (near Roseires), Blue 

 Nile, Sudan, is typical arabs. It differs from the two Ab3^ssinian 

 specimens in the following particular : The barring of the hind neck 

 becomes finer, almost amounting to vermiculations posteriorly in 

 the two latter, while in the former it remains coarse and large for 

 the entire length of the neck. The Sudanese bird is also smaller 

 than those from Ethiopia. 



Neumann ^^ gives the range of arahs as western and southern 

 Arabia and the coastal lands of the Red Sea from Bogosland to 

 northern Somaliland. 



Sclater ^^ gives Kassala as the western limit of its range, based on 

 the records given by Sclater and Mackworth-Praed,^^ who list arahs 

 from Gedaref and Sinkat, about 150 miles north of Gabardi. The 

 Blue Nile specimen considerably extends the known range of the 



"Nov. Zool., vol. 29, 1922, p. 23. 

 " Syst. Avium Ethiop., 1924, p. 112. 

 "Journ. f. Ornith., 1907, p. 307. 

 "•Ibis, 1920, p. 797. 



