312 



BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



present on the outer as well as the inner webs of the outermost 

 remex. In general, this character does hold within limits. It is 

 wholly a male character, however, the females of apatelius usually 

 having no white on the outer web. 



The size variations of apatelius are indicated in the following 

 table : 



In color the variations are not as marked as in some goatsuckers, 

 but there is a suggestion of dichromatism, slight but real, in the 

 present series. Some adults are graj^er, others browner, the diifer- 

 ence being most noticeable on the crown and upper wing coverts 

 and scapulars. Zedlitz ®^ writes that in Erlanger's collection are 

 two typical fossei from the Sagon Valley, and from Woreda, south- 

 ern Somaliland. These are probably merely aberrant, dark indi- 

 viduals of apatelius; at least the locality would suggest the 

 imi^robability of their being fossei fossei. 



C . f. apatelius occurs from central Ethiopia (Hawash region) and 

 the southern Slioan lake region east to the Danakil coast and Somali- 

 land (south to Jubaland) and northern Kenya Colony south to the 

 Tana River. It is said to be a bird of the low country, but Mearns 

 collected two at Anole Village at the lower border of the juniper 

 zone. 



The Malele and Tana River specimens are the first recorded from 

 Kenya Colony, and extend the range of this race southward for about 

 200 miles. 



According to Erlanger *^ the breeding season in southern Somali- 

 land is in April and May. On April 26 he found two eggs in the 

 Ganale area. They were dirty grayish white flecked with violet 

 ashy gray so extensively that but little of the ground color remained 

 visible. They had a decided gloss and measured 24.5 by 19 milli- 

 meters and 23.5 by 19 millimeters pespectively. 



8«Journ. f. Ornith., 1915, p. 38. 

 «»Idem, 1905, p. 499. 



