BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 197 



* * * all of the parent birds appear much excited and utter cries which 

 closely resemble those of the laughing gull. Nearly all are adults, but with 

 here and there a dark, immature bird. 



Order COLUMBIFORMES 

 Family PTEROCLIDAE 



PTEROCLES SENEGALENSIS SENEGALENSIS Lichtenstein 



Pterocles senegalensis Lichtenstein, Verz. Doubl., p. 64, 1823 : Senegambia ( ?) 



Speciinens collected: 



Two females, Ourso, Ethiopia, July 5-12, 1911. 



One male, Dire Daoua, Ethiopia, September 14, 1911. 



One male, near Biian, Ethiopia, December 19, 1911. 



Three males and two females, AVadi Malka, Ethiopia, December 

 22, 1911. 



One male and one female, Sadi Maika, Ethiopia, January 23-30, 

 1912. 



One male, Hawash Eiver, Ethiopia, February 7, 1912. 



The two birds from Ourso and the one from Dire Daoua were 

 collected by M. Ouellard who disposed of them to the expedition. 



The races of this sandgrouse are poorly differentiated and have 

 been the source of much confusion and annoyance to students of 

 African birds. The chief obstacle in the path of those who would 

 attempt to study the geographic variations is the fact that the type 

 locality is Senegambia, a region in which the species does not occur 

 as far as I know. Consequently no tj'^pical material is available 

 as a basis for subspecific work. In Lichtenstein's original descrip- 

 tion the range is given as " Senegambia, Egypt, Nubia," a matter 

 which further complicates things as the birds of Egypt are different 

 from those of Nubia, so that if we assume Egypt to be the true 

 terra typica we have a dark typical race, while if we assume Lich- 

 tenstein's type to have come from Nubia, a lighter bird is the so- 

 called true senegaleims. Sclater'^^ has avoided this difficulty by 

 '' lumping " the birds of the Sudan, Chad region, Egypt, Nubia, and 

 Ethiopia, making the composite result the typical race. This may 

 settle the question for the moment, but when one tries to identify 

 the more southern races, the whole matter becomes once more hope- 

 lessly tangled as the so-called " senegalensis " is in itself hetero- 

 geneous and thereby precludes the po.ssibility of accurate racial 

 demarcation. The best course to follow seems to be to exclude the 

 darker Egyptian birds from the typical form and use the name 

 floweri for them. Then the typical form becomes more homogeneous 



^2 Syst. Avium Ethiop., 1924, p. 156. * 



