116 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Meai'iis' field notes on tliis form are given in full below. 



First found at this camp (Bodessa, end of May and early June). They are 

 in twos or threes, occasionally in families of half-grown young. Once I sur- 

 prised 20 of them together in a canyon, near water, about 2 p. m. I have never 

 seen one on the ground alive ; they fly up from the grass and bushes with loud 

 chirping cries and fly strongly for a long distance without ceasing their rapid 

 wing strokes. Then they raise their wings and settle in the grass. At first their 

 flight is low, then they mount higher as they acquire speed. In flight the flocks 

 sometimes keep together, but where there are only two or three they often fly 

 in different directions. Tlie flock of 20 surprised in a canyon separated and flew 

 up different sides to the grass cover. They appear to have finished breeding. 



FRANCOLINUS CASTANEICOLLIS CASTANEICOLLIS Salvador! 



Francolinus castaneicoUis Salvadoei, Ann. Mus. Civ. Geneva, vol. 26, p. 542, 

 1888: Lake Ciar-Ciar; Shoa. 



Specimens collected : 



Six male adults, 5 female adults, 1 adult unsexed, 2 male iimnatures, 

 1 female immature, Arussi Plateau, Ethiopia, February' 18-28, 1912. 



Soft parts : Iris brown ; bill and feet reddish brown in young birds, 

 red in adults (both sexes) ; claws olive brown. 



In studying the races of this species I have seen 35 specimens of 

 three of the four known subspecies. This notable series of a bird 

 somewhat uncommon in collections exhibits color variations con- 

 siderable enough to raise some doubt as to the distinctness of hottegl 

 and castaneicoUis. Mackworth-Praed has recently studied the fran- 

 colins and writes (Ibis, 1922, p. 118) that these two races are closely 

 allied, " * * * and possibly identical," but that hottegi (9 speci- 

 mens) appears, '' * * * to be brighter above and duskier below,'" 

 than in a single specimen of castaneicoUis. This I do not find to 

 be true. 



According to Neumann,"* the difference between hott^agi and cas- 

 taneicoUis is the color of the upper back (interscapulars, etc.). In 

 the former the feathers of the upper back have no reddish-brown 

 edges. Such edges are present only on the sides of the body, so that 

 the upper parts present a black mottled appearance up to the reddish 

 nape, while in the latter race all the featiiers of the upper back have 

 wide margins of bright reddish brown, giving a strong reddish tone 

 to the entire upper back. The typical race is said to inhabit the moun- 

 tainous districts from the Ha wash River and Harrar to eastern 

 Arussi-Gallaland, while hottegi occurs in the area between eastern 

 Arussi and the Abaya Lake country. Mearns' specimens, therefore, 

 come from more or less intermediate territory, but considerably 

 nearer to that of castaTieicollis than of hottegi. What might at first 



"Journ. f. Ornith., 1904, pp. 352-354. 



