260 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Somaliland from late in August until the middle of September; in 

 the Sudan, during September. However, Meinertzhagen ^^ collected 

 one as early as July 29 in Uganda, and another at Korogwe, Tan- 

 ganyika Territory, on August 26, but according to him they do not 

 arrive in tropical eastern Africa in any numbers until October. In 

 the Kenya-Tanganyika-Uganda region the birds are found all winter, 

 but in the Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somaliland they appear to occur 

 only on migration. The birds leave tropical east Africa in March 

 although a few stragglers linger until nearly the end of April, 

 In the Sudan the birds pass through in numbers during the latter 

 half of April and early May. In Egypt they arrive from the south 

 in the second week of April and the last individuals have gone 

 through by the middle of May. 



The Asiatic race telephonus seems to precede the European form 

 a little in the northward spring migration and to lag behind it in 

 migration time. The difference is slight — only a week or 10 days 

 as far as can be determined from present knowledge. 



" The bird collected was chased out of a big tree in a clearing by 

 a drongo." (E. A. Mearns.) 



CUCULUS SOLITARIUS Stephens 



Cuculus solitarius Stephens, in Shaw's Genl. ZooL, vol. 9, p. 84, pi. 18, 1815: 

 Caffraria — Eastern Cape Province (ex Levaillant). 



Specimens collected: 



Two males, Botola, Sidamo, Ethiopia, March 4, 1912. 



Three males and one female, Aletta, Ethiopia, March 7-11, 1912. 



Soft parts: Eye ring, feet, and claws yellow; bill blackish, the 

 basal two-thirds olive ; corners of mouth orange. 



These six specimens (the only ones from northeastern Africa ex- 

 amined) are darker and redder on the breast than 22 others from 

 South Africa, Tanganyika Territory, Kenya Colony, Uganda, and 

 the Belgian Congo. They also differ from the latter series in being 

 slightly darker on the upper parts as well but this difference is not 

 constant. It seems that the Ethiopian birds may be racially distinct 

 from those of the rest of Africa, but they can not be given a name 

 until the following nomenclatural tangle is straightened out. Cucu- 

 lus heuglini -^ was based on a bird from Bahr el Abiad and is gen- 

 erally considered a synonym of 0. solitarius. In 1856 Heuglin^^ 

 used the name C. I'u-ficoUis for a bird from Bahr el Abiad and con- 

 sidered the now current G. solitarius as a synonym. It therefore 



25 Ibis, 1922, p. 52. 



2^Cabanis and Heine, Mus. Ilein., vol. 4, Heft 1, 1862, p. 42 (not p. 32 as given in the 

 Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., VOgel Afr., etc.). 

 ^ Sitzb. Ak. Wlss. Wien, p. 300. 



