BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 389 



■marwitzi from the Turkwell River, but Van Someren calls birds 

 from there nUoticus. Reasonin*? by analogy with the distribution of 

 races of other birds it would appear that both may be correct; that 

 is. that Turkwell is intermediate country and the birds are inter- 

 irrades between the two races. The extent of intergradation varies 

 as usual, and consequently individual specimens would be found 

 that might be considered nearer to one or the other. 



The fact that marwitzi extends northward along the coast into 

 Somaliland is a point that has not been recognized hitherto. How- 

 ever. Elliot ^- records five red-billed '^ Irrisor en/fhrorhynchus " 

 from Hullier and Le Gud, northern Somaliland. 



Sclater. following C. Grant, considers hrevirostrh^ Gunning and 

 Roberts (type locality Boror, Mozambique) a synonym of marwitzi. 

 While I have no material from Mozambique at present, I remember 

 Mr. Roberts showing me the series in the Transvaal IVIuseum some 

 six years ago and that the bill character appeared to be a good one. 

 He upholds this form in his recent check list ^^ and I am not inclined 

 to disagree with him. The birds of the Zambesi valley in Mozam- 

 bique would belong to this race, and not to inarioitzi. Sclater writes 

 that 77m?mritzi occurs south to Natal. However, Natal birds are more 

 or less intermediate between marwitzi [ov hrevirostris) andptirpureus, 

 and. if anything, nearer the latter. 



2. P. p. niloticus. — The drainage basin of the Nile south to the 

 Bahr el Ghazal, east through southwestern Ethiopia (to Shoa) to 

 the northwestern frontier of Kenya Colon}' (south to the Endoto 

 Mountains). This subspecies differs from marwitzi in being duller 

 and darker than the latter; the mantle and breast somewhat bluer, 

 the underside of the wings bluer, not greenish as in marrritzi. 



The immature female listed above has the bill black, and has the 

 throat feathers metallic green, margined with pale tawny. How- 

 ever, the other young bird and another examined have the feathers 

 of the chin and throat entirely tawny brown, a few new metallic 

 feathers coming in among them. It appears then, that the immature 

 female collected by Mearns is in first " adult " plumage, and the 

 male (with the solid brown throat) a juvenal bird. Three specimens 

 in the present collection are much less greenish on the breast and 

 mantle than any others from Kenya Colony and Tanganyika Terri- 

 tory examined by me. One can not help but wonder if they may not 

 be hybrids between marwitzi and granti. 



Adult males vary in size as follows: Wing 139-142.5; tail 198- 

 226; culmen 40^8.5 millimeters. Female: Wing 134-148; tail 200- 

 229.5; culmen 36.5—43 millimeters. 



"2 Field Columbian Mus. publ. 17, ornith. sories, vol. 1, No. 2, 1807, p. rA. 

 o» Annals Transv. Mus., vol. 10. 1924. p. 149. 



