BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 103 



The female is somewhat less streaked on the breast and flanks than 

 are two females of africana from South Africa, but this is due in 

 part, at least, to the fact that the feathers are fresh and the whitish 

 edges not worn off, thereby hiding the streaks of the underlying 

 feathers. 



Erlanger ^^ writes that in four males from Ethiopia the dark throat 

 patch is not interrupted by a white band. In all three birds collected 

 by Mearns there is a white band separating the throat patch and its 

 postero-lateral transverse stripes from the tawny cinnamon of the 

 breast, just as in afncaria and typical coturnix. 



There is a vague possibility, worth investigating, that erlangen 

 may be the breeding form of the highlands of the coastal strip of 

 eastern Africa a good distance to the south of Ethiopia — even into 

 Tanganyika Territory. At a meeting of the Deutsche Ornitholo- 

 gische Gesellschaft held in February, 1914,^- Schuster recorded 

 Coturnix afncana as an abundant breeding bird in the Uluguru 

 Mountains, Tanganyika Territory, at elevations of 1,000 meters (3,300 

 feet) and higher, in bare and barren regions. His remarks are not 

 very clear as briefly summarized in print but apparently these birds 

 are very darkly colored as compared with lowland ones. Professor 

 Neumann then called attention to the fact that while the species C . 

 coturnix was known to breed in northeastern Africa it was not known 

 to nest in Tanganyika Territory (except in the higher parts of the 

 Uluguru Mountains), and that Zedlitz had named the Abyssinian 

 bird erlangeri. Whether the dark, mountain birds are erlmigerl also 

 is not mentioned, but the suggestion seems implied, perhaps quite 

 unintentionally, that the Uluguru birds have something in common 

 with those of the Abyssinian highlands. 



In connection with Neumann's remarks it is interesting to note that 

 Van Someren ^^ writes that Cotuimix coturnix africana breeds in 

 June in Kenya Colony (Kyambu and Embu). Lonnberg ^* also 

 records it as breeding in Kenya Colony. 



Some of the published records of africana really refer to the red 

 phase of typical coturnix (the so-called haldanii). This applies to 

 the Egyptian records ^^ and probably to some Sudanese records as 

 well.3'' ' 



The three males collected vary in size, the wing lengths being 101.5, 

 108.5, and 114 millimeters, respectively, while that of the female is 

 109 millimeters. 



"Journ. f. Oniith., 1905, p. 156. 



^ Reported on by Heinroth, Jouru. f. Ornith., 1914, p. 292. 



S8N0V. Zool., vol. 29, 1922, p. 32. 



«*Kung. Sv. Vet. Akad. Handlgr., 1911, p. 53. 



ssNicoll, Handlist Birds of Egypt, p. 81. 



«>See Nicoll, Ibis, 1922, p. 701. 



