BII;DS of ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 401 



Claude Grant -" has reviewed the systematics of this bird and his 

 conclusions are supported by the series examined in the present con- 

 nection. There are two valid forms, a short-tailed race, with no 

 or only small, incomplete white spots on the outer rectrices — the 

 typical one of southern Africa from Angola (north to the Quanza 

 Kiver) to the Oran<?e River, Bechuanaland, the Transvaal, Natal, 

 and western Matabeleland, and the northern from schalowi of 

 East Africa from Lamu. and the Tana River in Kenya Colony west 

 to Mount Eigon and Ruwenzori, south through the eastern Belgian 

 Congo (Beni, the Ruzizi Valley, etc.), Uganda, Ruanda, Urundi, 

 Tanganyika Territory, Mozambique and Nyasaland to Mashonaland 

 and the northeastern Transvaal. This race differs from typical 

 cyanonielas in having a longer tail with large, well developed white 

 spots on the outer rectrices. Roberts -^ described the bird from the 

 northern Transvaal under the name intennedius. This race, which 

 is just what its name implies, is considered a synonym of schaloinl 

 by Grant, Sclater, and others. It is said to have the long tail of 

 schalowi but with less white on the outer feathers. An adult male 

 from the thornbush country of the Bushman's River, Natal, agrees 

 with Robert's description, but as Grant has shown that the range 

 of nongeographic variation in tropical East Africa is great enough 

 to more than match a good series of intermedius, it is quite unneces- 

 sary to add a third group to the named forms of this species. Tlie 

 group that Roberts named is merely an aggregate of variables bridg- 

 ing the gap between the two valid subspecies. 



Ogilvie-Grant," in reporting on the birds collected by the Ruwen- 

 zori expedition, refers one specimen (out of 13 collected) to the typi- 

 cal southern race because the white subterminal marking on the two 

 outer pairs of rectrices are reduced to small spots. It seems, however, 

 more natural to regard this bird as an aberrant schalowi than as a 

 possible migrant cyanomelas, especially since the latter is not 

 migratory. 



This bird occurs chiefly in the thorny bushveldt and Acacia savan- 

 nas but also is found in forested areas, but never in the middle of 

 dense woods. Its altitudinal range is from sea level to 7,000 feet 

 (Mount Elgon — H. Granvik collection). 



In Kenya Colony the majority of the birds molt in March and 

 April but I have seen molting specimens taken in July and Augusr^ 

 and others as late as December. 



The Juvenal bird is dark bi'own on the head, mantle, throat, and 

 breast, the feathers tipped with cinnamon brown; the abdomen is 

 dull black ; the back and rump black with a violet sheen ; the wings 



=»Ibis, 1015, pp. 290-291. 



='Ann. Transv. Mus., vol. 4. 1914. p. 171. 



^ Trans. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1910. p. 433. 



