BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 441 



aethiops is based, are not too well marked. Sclater and Mackworth- 

 Praed ^° and Gyldenstolpe ^« reject aethiops as a valid race, and 

 synonyniize it with aequatorialis. On the other hand, Van Someren,^^ 

 Sclater,i« and Hartert " consider it recognizable. The material 

 available to me in the present connection is too meager (as regards 

 aethiops) to allow me to weigh the arguments, but I tentatively 

 accept the race with, however, no great confidence in its reality. The 

 races of this barbet, then, are as given by Sclater ^^ except that the 

 range of aethiops must be extended to include the White Nile, and 

 that of aequatorialis to Ruanda and the Bukoba area, Tanganyika 

 Territory, and western Kenya Colony. 



Bannerman -° has reviewed the systematics of this barbet and 

 makes the following observations. Birds from the Sudan and White 

 Nile (10 skins) have wing lengths of from 95 to 103 millimeters and 

 average 98.8 millimeters, while 11 specimens from Ethiopia measure 

 96 to 102 millimeters, averaging 98.8 millimeters. Certainly, if we 

 are to accept aethiops for the Abyssinian bird on the ground of its 

 smaller size, we must unite with it the Sudan birds as they average 

 exactly the same in the wing measurement. 



" Neumann correctly pointed out that Niam-Niam specimens were 

 smaller than Uganda birds. 



" Thus at a glance : 



L. b. aequatorialis: Millimeters 



Niam-Niam, Fr. Eq. Afr., North Belgian Congo, wing average 101. 5 



Uganda, wing average 104.3 



L. b. aethiops: 



Sudan, wing average 98. S 



Abyssinia, wing average 98. 8 



" Despite occasional birds appearing to upset these calculations, I 

 consider that the material in the National Collection (Brit. Mus.) 

 * * * proves Neumann to have been justified in separating the 

 Abyssinian form and we must include the Sudan birds with it.*' 



All this suggests a point which I have not the material to inves- 

 tigate and which I therefore pass on to others to settle. Tlie race 

 aequatorialis was described from Umparu near Wadelai, a locality, 

 which, according to Bannerman's account, is on the border of the 

 ranges of both aequator^ialis and aethiops. The type, or at least a 

 series of topotypes, of the former ought to be examined and meas- 

 ured. It may be that Neumann redescribed aequatorialis when he 



i^Uns, 1919, p. 635. 



"Kungl. Sv. Vet. Akad. Handler., 1924, p. 237. 



"Nov. Zool., vol. 29, 1922, p. 55. 



18 Syst. Avium Ethiop., 1924, p. 273. 



"Nov. Zool., vol. 32, 1925, p. 138. 



^oRev. Zool. Afr., vol. 10, 1922, pp. 102-104. 



