BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 233 



and above, and the red color extends down on the abdomen, which 

 in aequatorialis is whitish. 



The form sudanensis seems untenable. A specimen from Karkoj, 

 Blue Nile, Sudan, is not in any way distinguishable from aequa- 

 torialis. Furthermore Lynes ^^' writes that the differences between 

 aequatonalis and sudanensis are very small, as out of a considerable 

 series from the Nile very few birds match the description or type 

 of the latter race, and concludes that the name is merely a con- 

 venience for further inquiry. 



It appears that there are in all seven races, of which two are 

 Asiatic — camhayeiisis and ernianni — and five are African. The Afri- 

 can races are as listed by Sclater ^^ with the exception that stidanensis 

 is not distinct from aeqwatorialis., and with the addition of the two 

 North African (palearctic) races, phoenicophila and aegypfiaca 

 Of all the forms, aegvxitoTialis is clearly the most variable. Some 

 of the variations are remarkable. Tavo specimens from central Tan- 

 ganyika Territory (Kilosa and Morogoro) and another from Mozam- 

 bique (Lumbo) are light and pale enough to match the description of 

 sudanensis^ while from all around them are darker birds. 



The distribution of the subspecies of the laughing dove is as 

 follows : 



1. S. s. Senegal ensis. — Senegal to Northern Nigeria, intergrading 

 with aequatorialis in the Lake Chad region. 



2. S. s. aequatorialis. — From Southern Nigeria through Darfur, 

 Kordofan, Bahr el Ghazal to the Nile Valley, Ethiopia, Eritrea, the 

 Red Sea Province of the Sudan and southern Arabia; south to the 

 Cape Province. Absent in forested areas, such as the Congo basin, 

 and not found at altitudes above 6,000 feet. 



3. S. s. sokotrae. — Confined to the island of Socotra. 



4. S. s. phoenicopMla. — The date palm groves of Algeria, Tunisia, 

 and Morocco south of the Atlas Mountains, 



5. S. s. aegyptiaca. — Egypt and the lower Nile valley south to the 

 Nubian desert. 



6. S. s. caml) ay en-sis. — Tropical India from the foothills of the 

 Himalayas to the Malabar coast, east to the Hoogli and Ganges Rivers 



(after Hartert). 



7. S. s. ermanni. — Turkestan, Baluchistan, Afghanistan, Persia, 

 and southeastern Arabia (Muscat). 



The immature female collected at Lake Rudolf on July 11 is in 

 an early stage of the postjuvenal molt. The only new (adult) feath- 

 ers present are the five outermost secondaries and their upper coverts 



t^Ibis, 1925, p. 57G. 



'^Syst. Avium Ethiop., 1924, p. 170. 



