168 



BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Zedlitz ^° has separated the birds of South and east Africa from 

 those of Arabia and Ethiopia on the basis of size, the northeastern 

 birds being larger. Grant ^^ does not recognize miinor of Zedlitz and 

 calls birds from Kenj^a Colony typical material. Yet his measure- 

 ments corroborate those given by Zedlitz; South and east African 

 birds having wings 201-215 millimeters in length, Abyssinian ex- 

 amjDles having wings 214-225 millimeters long. Van Someren ^- 

 gives somewhat different wing measurements, viz, east African birds, 

 wings 215-218, northeast African 218-230 millimeters. The present 

 series collected by Mearns have wings 217 (female) to 241 (male) 

 millimeters long, and clearly indicate the validity of Zedlitz's work. 

 The following table illustrates the distinctness of the two forms. 



S. melanopterus melanopierus 



S. melanopterus minor 



Locality 



Kenya Colony, 37° E., 0° 10' S 



Kenya Colony, Athi River 



South Africa, Natal 



There is considerable individual variation in some of the color 

 characters. Some birds have much more of a purplish sheen to the 

 feathers of the back; others have these parts more bronzy; the 

 amount of white on the forehead and anterior part of the crown is 

 extremely variable, but this may be correlated with age, younger 

 birds having less white (and that not pure, but mottled with gray) 

 and older individuals more of it. In extreme cases, even the lores are 

 whitish, connecting the white of the chin and upper throat with that 

 of the forehead. 



The outer, middle, upper wing coverts, when fresh, are broadly 

 tipped with white and subterminally narrowly banded with black, 

 but the white tips wear off to, and sometimes include, the black 

 lines. 



8«0rn. Monatsb., 1908, p. 180. 



81 Ibis, 1915, i;p. 56-57. 



«Nov. Zool., vol. 29, 1922, p. 15. 



