148 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



LOPHOTIS RUFICRISTA GINDIANA (Onstalet) 



Eupodofis gindiana Oustalet, Bull. Soc. Pbilom., ser. 7, voL 7. p. 164, 1881 : 

 " East Africa between Somaliland and Zanzibar." 



/Specimens collected: 



Two male adults, three female adults, one female juvenal, Bodessa, 

 Ethiopia, May 2^31, 1912. 



Male, Wobok, Ethiopia, June 18, 1912. 



Male, subadult, Lekiundu River, Kenya Colony, August 7, 1912. 



Soft parts : Iris, yellow or brownish yellow ; bill, brownish black 

 on maxilla and extreme tip of mandible ; rest of mandible and com- 

 missural margin of maxilla, grajdsh horn color; bare tibiae and feet, 

 grayish white tinged with olive on toes ; claws, brownish black. 



Lophotis ruflc7'ista ranges from the valley of the Orange River in 

 South Africa throughout southern Rhodesia and east Africa to cen- 

 tral Ethiopia, northern Somaliland and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan 

 west through Kordofan and Darfur. Roughly, it may be said to 

 range north to the equatorial rain forest belt, east of it, and then in 

 the Sudan it turns west again, north of the forested region. Through- 

 out its range it has become differentiated into four races, one of 

 which (savilei) may be even specifically distinct. These races are 

 as follows : 



1. Lophotis ruficrista 1'^ficrista. — South Africa, Rhodesia, and 

 Angola, from the valley of the Orange River north to Benguella and 

 to the valleys of the Zambesi and its affluents. This form is charac- 

 terized by large size, wings (male) 270-290, (female) 260-262 milli- 

 meters; the tuft on the nape in the male rufous vinous; lores and 

 superciliaries, pale brown. 



2. Lophotis ruficrista gindiana. — Tanganyika Territory from the 

 Pangani River north through Kenya Colony and northeastern 

 Uganda (Turkana and Turkwell districts) to the Abaya Lakes, 

 Arussi, Galla, and Shoa districts of Ethiopia, and to southern Italian 

 Somaliland. Characterized by having the tuft of feathers on the 

 nape in the male paler than in ruf crista., pale rufous buff, whitish 

 tawny at the base; the lores and superciliaries slightly more orange 

 than in the typical form; averages smaller, wing (male) 255-272, 

 (female) 257-275 millimeters. 



3. Lophotis ruficrista hilgerti. — Northern and central Somaliland. 

 Similar to gindiana but the black marks on the back more incised 

 with yellowish-brown marks, tending to make the upper parts more 

 uniform, more vermiculated, less heavily splotched in appearance. 



4. Lophotis ruficHsta savilei. — Sudan, provinces of Darfur and the 

 western part of Kordofan. Easily told by its small size ; the smallest 



