352 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



One female adult, Iron Bridge, Hawash River, Ethiopia, February 

 4, 1912. 



One male adult and two female adults, Hawash River, Ethiopia, 

 February 11-12, 1912. 



Five male adults, Gato River near Gardula, Ethiopia, March 31 to 

 May 11, 1912. 



Three male adults and one female adult, Bodessa, Ethiopia, May 



27, 1912. 



Two female adults, Lekiundu River, Kenya Colony, August 6, 1912. 

 Two female adults, Bowlder Hill, Thika River, Ethiopia, August 



28, 1912. 



Soft parts : Bill, black, red on basal half of mandible. 



Sclater ^^ lists but two forms of this kingfisher — the typical one, 

 and ereniogiton. However, Hartert, when describing the latter,^^ 

 separated the South African birds under Strickland's name daiiia- 

 rensis^ a point which Sclater does not mention. More recently 

 Grote ^° has proposed the name hylobms for the birds of the central 

 African forest region from Cameroon, the Congo, and Angola, 

 east to Lakes Tanganyika and Nyasa, and probably to the interior 

 of Tanganyika Territory. While this race is admittedly only an 

 intermediate form, bridging the gap between chelicuti and dmnaren- 

 sis, and therefore rather difficult to define, it seems to have no 

 existence as an entity in nature. I propose to recognize three races, 

 as follows : 



1. Halcyon chelicuti chelicuti. — From Gambia, Senegal, and 

 Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and Ethiopia, south to northern Angola, 

 the northern part of Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland, and central 

 Mozambique. 



2. Halcyon chelicuti ereTnogiton. — Arid portions of Northern 

 Nigeria from Zinder to the Lake Chad district. This form, which 

 I have not seen, is said to differ from the typical race in being paler, 

 especially on the scaf)ulars and upper wing coverts and in having 

 a somewhat slenderer bill. Gyldenstolpe ^^ suggests that although 

 he has not seen any material of this race — 



* * * the character of a more slender bill does not seem to be of any 

 use for separating subspeciflc races of this kingfisher, because a great amount 

 of variation exists as regards the size and shape of the bill, at least in 

 material from East Africa * * * examined. 



Sclater ^^ writes that this form may range east to the Nile Valley, 

 but Lynes "- writes that the birds of Darfur are of the typical race. 



8s Syst. Avium Ethiop., 1924, p. 218. 



so Nov. Zool., vol. 28, 1921, p. lOG. 



sojourn, f. Ornith., 1925, p. 90. 



»i Kungl. Sv. Vot. Akad. Ilandlgr., 1924, p. 280. 



"Ibis, 1925, p. 382. 



