BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 25 



by Oberholser ^- as Ardeola xanthopoda, is white, with a few dusky 

 feathers hidden among the white ones. 



There remains the possibility that the ralloides breeding in Mada- 

 gascar may be a separable race from the typical African, European, 

 and west Asiatic one. I have not sufficient material to decide this, 

 but the following notes are of interest : The only Madagascan ral- 

 loides in breeding plumage is noticeably more richly vinaceous on 

 the back and more deeply rufescent on the sides and the hind neck 

 than one from Italy and another from Palestine. However, the 

 latter two birds are probably females, while the Madagascan example 

 is a male, which may account for its brighter, more intense coloration. 

 Also, the latter has longer occipital plumes, more widely margined 

 with black, than either the Palestinian or the Italian example. 



BUTORIDES STRIATUS ATRICAPILLUS (Afzelius) 



Ardea atricapiUa Afzelius, Kongl. Vet.-Akad. nya Handl. Stockh., vol. 25, p. 

 264, 1804 : Sierra Leone. 



jSpechnens collected: 



Adult, unsexed, Ourso, Ethiopia, September 17, 1911. 



Adult female, Hawash River, Ethiopia, February 8, 1912. 



Immature male, Lekiundu River, Kenya Colony, August 7, 1912. 



These three specimens are atricapillus^ not hrevipes. It seems that 

 the latter race (said to be distinguished by its more grayish, less 

 greenish sheen to the interscapulars and scapulars, and the more 

 brownish tinge to the nape) is confined to the lowlands of the Red 

 Sea coast and does not g^et into the higher plateau country of Ethiopia. 

 However, one specimen, a female from Hawash River, is slightly 

 intermediate between atricapillus and hrevipes^ having the scapulars 

 and interscapulars less greenish, more bluish gray than other com- 

 parable specimens from Ethiopia, Kenya Colony, Tanganyika Ter- 

 ritory, Mozambique, Belgian Congo, and Cameroon, but the differ- 

 ence is slight and may be accounted for by individual variation or 

 by the amount of " bloom " on the feathers. 



In his review of the races of this heron,^^ Hartert lumps Mada- 

 gascan birds with continental specimens of atricapillus. The Mada- 

 gascan series in the Museum of Comparative Zoology indicates that 

 these birds are subspecifically distinct. They should be known as 

 B. s. rutenhergi^ a conclusion in which I am anticipated by Sclater.®* 

 B. s. rutenhergi is smaller than atricapUlv)s^ although there is some 

 overlapping in size as the following tables indicate. 



32 Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 22, 1900, p. 237. 



'3 Vogel der I'aliiarktischen Fauna, vol. 2, p. 1250. 



** Syst. Avium Ethiopicarum, 1924, p. 28. 



