278 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



-fiscTieri * * *." In a footnote he writes that this may be an 

 unnamed new form of " * * * C. inonachus^ but according to 

 Grant * * * the true G. m. monachus occurs southward to 

 Kikuyu. But it resembles the central Abyssinian form * * * 

 occidentalis * * *." This last sentence is doubtless intended to 

 read central African, not Abyssinian. However, he continues by 

 stating that his specimen (1), "* * * is in the beginning of the 

 molt, and that is why the color of the back is different from that of 

 specimens in fresh plumage," which are said to be lighter. 



This takes care, I think, of the bird of the Nile Valley and 

 Uganda — G. monachus jischeri. There still remain to be discussed 

 angolensis and cupreicaiidus. The western occidentalis is recognized 

 as valid by all workers, and need not detain us here. It is char- 

 acterized by the dark olive-brown secondaries; otherwise like 

 monachus. As mentioned above, Sclater does not mention angolensis 

 in the Systema Avium Ethiopicarum but evidently considers it the 

 same as occidentalism, while cupreicaudus is granted specific rank. 

 I have seen no specimens of angolensis^ but the characters given 

 by Neumann are as follows: Intermediate in every way between 

 occidentalis and cupreicaudus; the gloss of the head intermediate 

 between the steel blue of the former and the purple of the latter; 

 the tail nearly the same copj)ery bronze as in the latter; etc. 

 Hartert,^° in his notes on the types of birds in Tring Museum, lists 

 angolensis as valid with a querj^ He says that all the characters 

 given by Neumann appear to be rather without meaning, and that 

 the only distinctive feature of the form is the buffy barring of the 

 rump and upper tail coverts. However, this likewise occurs in 

 some East African birds, so on the whole, the case for angolensis 

 is none too good. Of the validity of this form I can form no definite 

 opinion as I have seen no material, but the intermediate character 

 of the north Angolan birds indicates that cupreicaudus is a race of 

 monachus (joined by intergrades, which, if worthj' of nomenclatural 

 recognition, would have to be called angolensis) and not a distinct 

 species as Sclater lists it. Roberts ^^ proposes to make cupreicaudus 

 the type of a new genus, Megacentrojms., but whether he would 

 separate it generically from moTmchus is not stated. 



The races of the blue-headed coucal are as follows : 



1. Gentropus monachus monachus. — Eritrea, Ethiopia, and north- 

 ern Kenya Colony, south to the Kikuyu district. 



2. Gentropus monachus -fischer'i. — The upper Nile Valley in the 

 Sudan and Uganda, east to the Abyssinian escarpment and the 

 Ilift Valley, and in the south, limited by the Nile-Congo divide, 

 which it does not cross. 



»<>Nov. Zool., vol. 32, 1925, pp. 152-153. 

 " Ann. Trans. Mus., vol. 8, 1922, p. 220. 



