BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 317 



Micropus afflnis abessynicus ranges from Gambia, Liberia, and 

 Northern Nigeria east to Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somaliland, and south- 

 western Arabia, soutli to Angola and the eastern part of the Cape 

 Province, omitting the arid country of the Kalahari region, the 

 Southwest African Protectorate, Namaqualand and Ovampoland. 

 But little has been recorded of its breeding. Loveridge found oc- 

 cupied nests at Kilosa, Tanganyika Territory on May 5, 1922, and 

 the Harvard Medical School's African expedition obtained two nest- 

 lings at Monrovia, Liberia, on November 19. These two specimens 

 show that the juvenal plumage is similar to the adult type. The 

 natal down is dark mouse gray. 



MICROPUS HORUS (Heuglin) 



Cypsclus affinis var. horns Heuglin, Orn. N. O.-Afr., vol. 1, p. 147, 1869 : 

 Northeast Africa. 



Specimens collected: 



One male and one unsexed, Gato River near Gardula, Ethiopia, 

 May 13, 1912. 



One male. Mar Mora, Ethiopia, June 14, 1912. 



One male. Escarpment, 7,390 feet (2,200 meters), Kenya Colony, 

 September 10, 1912. 



This swift occurs from central Ethiopia and the Sudan (west to 

 Darfur) south through Kenya Colony to Kilimanjaro, and, accord- 

 ing to Roberts, to the Zambesi Valley in the east, while in the west 

 it has been taken in northern Angola and at the mouth of the Congo. 

 As far as I know, it is unrecorded from between the latter region and 

 the eastern part of Darfur or western Kenya Colony. 



The birds from Gato River were in breeding condition. In his 

 field book, Mearns wrote as follows : " * * * A colony of about a 

 dozen pairs are nesting in a high bluff. I saw several emerge from 

 holes." The two from Mar Mora and Escarpment are in more 

 abraded plumage than the Gato River birds. Van Someren ^^ sug- 

 gests (without actually saying so) that this bird breeds at Lakes 

 Naivasha and Nakuru, Kenya Colony, but does not give any dates. 

 Erlanger " obtained a nestling at Hakaki, near Adis Abeba, July 7, 

 from an old nest of Hirundo emini. 



Inasmuch as this species is far from common in collections I ap- 

 pend the measurements of the four specimens listed above. 



"Nov. Zoo]., vol. 20, 1922, p. 88. 

 "Journ. f. Ornith., 190.5, p. 672. 



