358 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



estimated that some of the flocks he saw contained thousands of 

 birds. However, it thins out numerically in northern Ethiopia 

 and is scarce (that is, more local, as in localities where it does 

 exist, it occurs in flocks) in adjacent parts of Eritrea. Blanford ^^ 

 writes that he saw it but once. " * * * ^ large number were 

 collected about one spot close to the hot spring of Atzfut on the 

 shores of Annesley Bay. Mr. Jesse also met with it only once and 

 in the same neighborhood." According to Antinori it is only a 

 migrant in Shoa where he obtained specimens from September to 

 January. However, it appears that he was misled by its gre- 

 garious habit and assumed the presence of flocks to be a sign of 

 migration. The fact that Mearns procured a specimen at Gidabo 

 River on March 17 indicates the presence of the species throughout 

 the year. It does, however, appear to be much more local during 

 the breeding season than at other times. Both Neumann and Er- 

 langer found it only during November and December, and the lat- 

 ter mentions that he never saw it during the breeding season. The 

 nesting time, according to Von Heuglin, is in the beginning of the 

 summer rains (March and April in Sennar and the White Nile 

 country; June and August in the eastern Sudan). 



AEROPS ALB3C0LLIS MAIOR Parrot 



Aerojys alMcollis maior Parrot, Orn. Monatsb., vol. 18, p. 12, 1910: Bagainoyo. 



Specimens collected: 



Male, Malata, Ethiopia, June 22, 1912. 



Female, ChafFa, Ethiopia, June 23, 1912. 



Male, Hor, 3° 19' N., Kenya Colony, June 27, 1912. 



Three males, and 2 females, 18 miles southwest of Hor, Kenya 

 Colony, July 1, 1912. 



Male, North Rudolf, Womo River, Kenya Colony, May 30, 1912 

 (C. Frick, collector). 



In studying the present species I have examined a series of 16 

 specimens of typical albicolUs and 28 of mai(yt\ making 44 in all. 

 The two races are distinguishable chiefly by the length of the bill, 

 the eastern Tncdor having that member longer than in typical, western 

 birds. In his original description Parrot writes that mmor differs 

 from alhicollis in having the black pectoral band wider and in hav- 

 ing all the dimensions larger (wing 98-108 millimeters). The char- 

 acter of the width of the pectoral band does not hold, and, as may 

 be seen from the following table of the si/e measurements of adult 

 males, the wing length is not always greater in eastern birds, al- 



»»Gcol. and Zool. Abyss., 1870, p. 321. 



