220 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



this work that has been adopted without change by Sclater in the 

 Systema Avium Ethiopicarum (p. 166). With his results my studies 

 agtee fairly well, but some of his accounts of geographic ranges need 

 modification. As far as the material examined indicates, the ranges 

 of the eastern races of this dove are as shown on the accompanying 

 map. Of all the forms seen, the western ones have been least well 

 represented and consequently least accurately worked out. In the 

 absence of material from Nigeria and Cameroon, I can do nothing 

 but follow Sclater -^ in regarding logonensis as probably a synonym 

 of shell eyi. Likewise, kafuensis seems to be the same as amhigua. 

 On the other hand it appears probable that larger series will show 

 that fermista is really composed of two forms, a lighter, southern, 

 and a duskier, northern one. This has also been suggested by 

 Zedlitz, but in the present case, as in his, lack of sufficient material 

 makes it unwnse to split the group. 



The races of this dove inhabiting eastern Africa are as follows : 



1. 8. d. decipienS. — Northern half of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan 

 from the Lake Chad district east through Darfur and Kordofan to 

 the Nile as far south as Lake No, northeast to Sennar, Suakin, and, 

 in the northern part of its range east to the Red Sea (Port Sudan). 

 Sclater -' does not record it east of Sennar and Suakin, but recently 

 Chapin has obtained it at Port Sudan (specimen No. 262049 

 Am. Mus. Nat. Hist.). 



2. S. d. shelleyi. — Assuming that logonensis is the same as shelleyi 

 this western, darkly colored form, occurs in the region under discus- 

 sion, in the extreme eastern edge of the Belgian Cdngo and adjacent 

 portions of w^estern Uganda. This form occurs on the western, 

 southern, and northern shores of Lake Albert, and intergrades in the 

 West Nile Province ' of LTganda with both 'permista and decipiens. 

 The resulting birds are very difficult to determine satisfactorily and 

 consequently it is not surprising to find various names applied to 

 them. Sclater and Praed ^® list specimens from the Bahr el Zeraf 

 district of the Sudan as near permista, while Gyldenstolpe -° con- 

 siders a bird from near Mongalla as griseiventris. He makes the 

 mistake, however, of considering birds from Kisumu (with which 

 he compared the Mongalla specimen) as typical permista which they 

 are not. Kisumu birds are intergrades between permista and 

 perspicillata. 



3. S. d. permista. — This race occurs east of the Congo watershed 

 and west of the Rift Valley from the Nyasaland region north 

 through western Tanganyika Territory (east to the Wembere 

 Steppes, the Ugogo and Unyamwezi districts and the Mwanza area) 



="Syst. Avium Ethiop., 1924, p. 166. 



28 Ibis, 1920, p. 830. 



20 Kungl. Sv. Vet. Aliad. IlaiuUgr., 1924, p. 310. 



