194 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



HYDROCOLOEUS CIRRHOCEPHALUS POIOCEPHALUS (Swainson) 



Larus poiocephalus Swainson, Birds West Africa, vol. 2, 1837, p. 245 : No type 

 locality ; probably " West Africa." 



Specimens collected: 



One male adult, three female adults, Lake Rudolf, Kenya Colony, 

 July 5, 1912. 



One female adult. Lake Rudolf, Kenya Colony, July 6, 1912. 



One female adult, extreme south end Lake Rudolf, Kenya Colony, 

 July 7, 1912. 



Soft parts: Iris, white; eye ring, bill, and feet, red; claws, dark 

 brown. 



Dwight '^^ adopts the name yhaeocefhalus Strickland and Sclater 

 for the African race of the gray-hooded gull, but this name was pro- 

 posed"' as an emendation of Swainson's name poioce-phalus. While 

 it is true that foiocephalus^ as spelled, has no meaning, and was prob- 

 ably intended to be written poliocephalus, nevertheless it has to 

 stand. Names as such are of importance only as handles by which 

 to deal with species and it makes little or no difference if the name 

 has any inherent meaning or not. Emendations have no nomencla- 

 tural standing, and are merely signs of the pedantic tendencies of 

 their authors. If names had to really mean something, a large part 

 of the so-called barbaric or native names would have to be discarded, 

 as many of them are undoubtedly incorrectly transcribed. In the 

 original description of poiocephalus Swainson mentions no type 

 locality, nor does he say whence came his specimens. I assume that 

 " West Africa " would have to be considered as the type locality of 

 the African gray-hooded gull although the bird is known to breed 

 only in the central African lakes and not along the coast. 



The range of this bird as given by Sclater "^ needs modification 

 as regards its northeastern limits. He records it north only to Lakes 

 Edward and Victoria, but it occurs north well into Ethiopia, where it 

 has been taken on Lake Af jada.*'^ 



Dwight "** writes that the breeding season reaches its climax in 

 July or August in Africa, and in October and November in South 

 America. In its molts as well the typical form is several months 

 later in the year than the African race, a rather curious discrepancy. 

 In Africa the postjuvonal molt takes place from September to De- 

 cember, the prenuptial molt in March, April, and May, the post- 

 nuptial, September to January. The present series confirms Dwight's 



™Biill. Amer. Mus. Nal. Hist., vol. 52. 1925, p. 270. 



"List Birds Dam;ir;ilaii(l, in Jard. Contrib. Orn., 1852, p. 160. 



««Syst. Avium Ethiop.. 1924, p. 145. 



•"Erlanger, Journ. f. Ornith., 1905, p. 44. 



