118 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



that keniensis is a s3'nonym of placldus. In his original description 

 of the former (to which, if valid, the present two specimens would 

 have to be referred) Mearns wrote that keniensis could be distin- 

 guished from placidus by its more greenish-gray upperparts and 

 paler, less brownish head.^' Neither of these characters holds even 

 in Mearns's series of paratypes. 



Similarly, birds from the Uluguru Mountains are pl^cidus. I 

 have not seen any specimens from southeastern Tanganyika Terri- 

 tory, whence Reichenow ®^ described grotei^ a paler form. Sclater 

 considers this as the same as typical flscheri. 



Sclater has disposed of sokokensis van Someren, cognUus Grote, 

 doiuashanus Madarasz, and munzneri Reichenow, and, judging from 

 the descriptions and material available, I agree with his conclusions. 



The two races are distinguishable on the basis of the color of the 

 upperparts, the typical form being paler, especially on the head, 

 which is not distinctly browner than the back, than is jjlacidus. 



The specimen taken in September at Escarpment is in molt; the 

 August bird from Meru is in fresh plumage. 



Recently van Someren *® has described a form from Marsabit under 

 the name P. f. marsabit. I have seen no pertinent material and can 

 not form any opinion of it. It is said to be intermediate in color 

 between fischeH and pJacidus. 



PHYLLASTREPHUS CERVINIVENTRIS LONNBERGI Mearns 



Phyllastrephus cerviniventris lonnbergi Mkarj^s, Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 61, 



no. 25, p. 2, 1914: Tharaka district, Kenya Colony. 

 Specimens collected: 1 male, Tharaka district. Kenya Colony, August 12, 1912. 



This specimen is the tyjDe and, as far as I know, the only adult 

 example of lonnber^gi Sclater ^° considers this form as probably 

 identical with typical cerviniventris. When he described lonnbergi, 

 Mearns had only the present specimen and one of cerviniventris from 

 Taveta, and the published comments on a Meru (Equator) bird col- 

 lected by Lonnberg.^^ I have seen two additional specimens of the 

 typical race from the Uluguru Mountains, Tanganyika Territory, 

 and they help to substantiate the validity of Mearns's race. Of 

 course, additional material of lomibergi is what is really needed, but 

 for the present it is advisable to recognize this form. The two races 

 then are as f oIIoavs : 



1. P. c. cerviniventris : Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland, the Ka- 

 tanga, and Tanganyika Territory north to the Kilimanjaro region 



« Smitlisonian Misc. Coll., vol. 61, no. 25, pp. 2-3, 1914. 



MOrn. Monatsb., vol. 18, p. 8, 1910: Miklndani. 



8» Journ. East Africa and Uganda Nat. Hist. Soc, 1931, p. 197. 



w Systema avium ^thiopicarum, pt. 2, p. 385, 1930. 



»» Kongl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl., 1911, p. 115. 



