BIEDS OF ETHI0PL4. AND KENYA COLONY 413 



The red-billed hornbill inhabits most of Africa south of the 

 Sahara, omitting the forested areas of the western and west-central 

 parts of the continent. It is said to break up into three races ^° and 

 the 64 specimens examined by me in the course of the present study- 

 support this contention as far as the material represents the range 

 of the bird. 



1. L. e. eryihrorhynchus. — From Senegal through the upper 

 Guinean savanna region to the Lake Chad area, the Anglo-Egyptian 

 Sudan to the Nile Valley, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somaliland, Kenya 

 Colony, Uganda, and Tanganyika Territory. It may be that, as 

 Van Someren ^^ suggests, the northeast African birds should be 

 separated subspecifically from the typical Senegalese ones on ac- 

 count of the narrower, less curved bill which the latter have. In 

 this case, the name leucopareus Hemprich and Ehrenberg would be 

 available for the eastern birds. However, as I have seen no Sene- 

 galese material, and as Van Someren did not seem sure enough of his 

 convictions to carry them out in the paper referred to, I do not 

 attempt to split this race into an eastern and western form. 



2. L. e. 'ncflrostris. ^Southern Angola, Ovampoland, and north- 

 ern Damaraland, east through the Katanga and Rhodesia to Nyasa- 

 land and Mozambique, south through Bechuanaland to the Trans- 

 vaal where its range is coincident with that of the thornbush country. 

 This is the form called caffer in Sclater's list. Gyldenstolpe ^- has 

 shown that rufirost7'is is the correct name of this race and must stand, 

 with caffer as a synonym. Sundevall's use of the words " var. caffer " 

 is to be understood as a geographic, not a nomenclatural one, as he 

 explicitly calls the bird " ruflrostris n. sp." after writing these words. 

 This race differs from the typical one in that the bar on the outer 

 rectrices is restricted to the outer webs in erythroi'hynchus and ex- 

 tends across both webs in rujirostris. Also the whitish superciliary 

 streak is better developed in the former than in the latter. 



3. L. e. damarensis. — Only known from Damaraland proper. This 

 form I have not seen, but it appears to be much whiter, especially 

 on the top of the head. In his revision of the races of this species ^^ 

 C. Grant considered damarensis a synonym of cajfer (now mfirost7'is) 

 on the assumption that Shelley's type and cotype were albinistic 

 examples. Finch-Davies " refuted this conclusion and showed 

 damarensis to be a valid geographical entity. He writes that the 

 form found in the north of Damaraland is, " * * * most certainly 

 L. erythrorhynchus caffer, but as one goes south it gradually merges 



^ Sclater, Syst. AvJum Ethiop., 1924. p. 227. 



"Nov. Zool., vol. I'i), lfti'2, p. 7(5. 



»2Arkiv fOr Zool., vol. 19 A, no. 1, 1926, p. 84. 



w Ibis. 1915, p. 273. 



" Idem, 1917, p. 273. 



