BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 399 



white on the chin and throat, having only a very few (five or six) 

 white feathers on the forehead. 



The breeding season on Mount Elgon is in July according to 

 Granvik, who found a nest with one young on the 22d of that month. 



SCOPTELUS ATERRIMUS NOTATUS Salvin 



ScoiHelus uotatus Salvin, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mns., vol. 16. p. 22, 1892 : Northeast 

 Africa ; type in Brit. Mus. from Senaf6. 



Specimens collected: 



Six males, two females, Gato River near Gardula, Ethiopia, April 

 1-24, 1912. 



Neumann separated the birds of the southern Ethiopian lake 

 region from those of the northern and central parts of the country 

 under the name maior ^® on the basis of larger size and the presence 

 of only a single, small white spot on the outermost pair of rectrices 

 in the southern group. On geographical grounds all the specimens 



I 1 : ■■ ■ — ; ' ^ ; : \ ^ ' \ 



V^ 



1 



5l^ W^^ ■- ujy ^~.j£/ vjiij/ -^^i^^'' '\:^i^ '^--J^' '^'m^ 



Figure 12. — Outeemost eectrices of Scoptelds aterkimus not^tus to snow vauia 

 TiON. (The two figures at the extreme left of the pace are a pair ; thf 



OTHERS AHB EACH THE LEFT MEMBER OF A PAIR) 



collected by Mearns should be 77iaio7\ but that form is not separable 

 from notatus and I consider Neumann's name a pure synonym of 

 Salvin's earlier one. Neumann writes the wing length of maio7' 

 is 113 millimeters, and Zedlitz ^^ gives that of notatus as 96 to 100 

 millimeters. The present series have wing lengths of from 103 to 

 109 millimeters in the males and 96.5 to 102 millimeters in the 

 females. The character of the white spot on the outermost rectrices 

 is too variable to be of any use as a racial criterion. The figures 

 illustrate the variation in the present series. Not only do indi- 

 viduals vary in the presence or absence, size, and shape of the white 

 area, but, as may be seen, the right and left rectrices are not always 

 alike in the same bird. Lynes " writes that in the country from 

 Senegal to Darfur, variation in tail spots is not consistent with 

 geography, but inasmuch as all his specimens lack tail spots it is 

 difficult to know what he means by variation in this character. 



"Journ. f. Ornith., 1905, p. 107. 

 "Idem, 1910, p. 779. 

 '" Ibis. 19i'5, p. 378. 



