432 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



and the White Nile and Bahr el Ghazal. He did not meet with it in 

 the Samhar country although it was known from Takah and Bogos- 

 land. In Shoa Antinori, Harrison, Neumann, and others obtained 

 spi,ecimens. The last named °^ met with it at Gallan in Kollu Prov- 

 ince, also at Lake Zwai, Lake Ganjule, in Kaffa and in Jimma. It 

 must, however, be somewhat scarce and local in the southern Shoan 

 Lake region as Erlanger did not see it during his memorable voyage 

 in those parts. Donaldson Smith obtained a single specimen at Sheik 

 Mohamed in southeastern Ethiopia, but the species appears to be 

 absent, or at least unknown, from southern Somaliland and Jubalancl. 

 I am not aware of any definite records from the Danakil area, the 

 nearest being from Senafe, Ela Bered, and Scetel, all of which are 

 on the western side of the eastern Abyssinian escarpment. The 

 species is a highland form in the eastern part of its range. Blan- 

 ford 9- found it chiefly at altitudes of from 4,000 to 7,000 or 8,000 feet 

 (1,200 to 2,400 meters), but only occasionally at lower elevations. 

 Von Heuglin gives even greater altitudes. He gives 13,200 feet 

 (3,960 meters) as the upper limit of its range, although he admits 

 that the usual altitudinal distribution is between the limits of 4,620 

 and 8,250 feet. 



Zedlitz ^^ found it widely distributed above the outliers of the 

 inland plateau of northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, in the Barca region, 

 and also in the southwestern steppes of the Tacazze. In the Sudan 

 it occurs at lower levels and the same is true in the western portion 

 of its range. Thus, Lynes °^ writes that in Darf ur, " * * * out of 

 the breeding season, which is summer, * * * j^ ::^ * * might 

 occur * * * almost anywhere * * * bush or woodland, dry or 

 moist ground, high or low, even on the bare crags * * *." It is 

 worthy of mention that Bannerman ^^ does not mention this species 

 in his list of the birds of Southern Nigeria, but it occurs in the north- 

 ern part of Northern Nigeria and in the Chad region. ^"^ Its western 

 range appears to be conterminous Avith the Upper Guinean savanna 

 district, extending slightly beyond it, if anything, to the north, but 

 strictly limited to it in the south. 



It may be thought peculiar that the range of a bird which is chiefly 

 a highland form in northeastern Africa should extend into rela- 

 tively low lands in the west but not in the east. The arid Somali 

 belt, however, extends westward through Jubaland and much of 

 northern Kenya Colony and appears to be the barrier that prevents 

 the southward spread of the species into Kenya Colony. The pres- 



M Journ. f. Ornith., 1905, p. 187. 



«Geol. and Zool. Abyss., 1870, pp. 330-331. 



»■•' Journ. f. Ornith., 1010, pp. 7G1-763. 



»' Ibis, 192.'-), pp. 381-382. 



"•"^ Revue Zool. Africaino, vol. 10, fasc. 2, 1922. 



»" See Grote, Journ. f. Ornith., 1928, p. "60. 



