402 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



and tail are similar to those of the adult. As already intimated the 

 amount and extent of white on the rectrices are highly variable. 

 Granvik -^ has figured some of the types found in his series, and 

 these may all be matched by specimens examined by me. A variation 

 that he does not mention, but that is discussed by Van Someren -* is 

 the number of greater upper primary coverts that are white. Most 

 of the birds I have examined have the innermost one white, a few 

 have others white as well, and one has all of these coverts blue. In 

 the cases where more than one of the these feathers are white, there 

 is great variation as to their position. In one bird the two inner- 

 most ones are white, wliile in another the innermost one is white, 

 the next three blue, then another white one, etc. 



RHINOPOMASTUS MINOR MINOR (Ruppell) 



Promerops minor Ruppell, Syst. Uebers., p. 28, pi. 8, 184.5 : Shoa. 



Specimens collected: 



Seven males, five females, one unsexed, Dire Daoua, Ethiopia, Oc- 

 tober 4 to December 19, 1911. 



Two males, two females, Ha wash River, Ethiopia, February 12, 

 1912. 



One female, Gato River near Gardula, Ethiopia, April 15, 1912. 



Sclater -^ recognizes three forms of this bird, but considers one of 

 them {somalicus) only doubtfully distinct. The nominate form and 

 the more southern cabanisi are very distinct, the latter lacking the 

 white wing bars present in the former. Sclater writes that somalicus 

 is doubtfully distinguishable from typical minor, but in this he is 

 mistaken. If somalicus is not valid it is a synonym of cabanisi 

 and not of minor. In the original description ^^ Erlanger states 

 that somalicus agrees in color with cahanisl (that is, has no white 

 wing bars) but is smaller in size. In fact, Zedlitz ^^ vaguely sug- 

 gests that somalicus agrees more with the description of typical 

 cabanisi than do specimens of the latter race from Kenya Colony 

 and Tanganyika Territory. Van Someren ^^ writes that from the 

 measurements given by Reichenow for typical cahaiiisi, it would 

 seem that Kenya and Uganda birds are larger than those of the 

 White Nile. 



Zedlitz ^" notes that five birds collected by Erlanger in Gallaland 

 and Gurraland are more or less intermediate between minor and 



"Journ. f. Ornith., 1923, Sonderheft, pp. 114-116. 



^* Nov. Zool., vol. 29, 1922, p. 83. 



= Sj'st. Avium Ethiop., 1924, pp. 236-237. 



'"'Journ. f. Ornith., 1905, p. 401. 



"Idem, 1915, pp. 34-36. 



=* Nov. Zool., vol. 29, 1922. p. 83. 



