BIKDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 97 



Soft parts: Male — iris pale clear yellow; bill pale olive-brown, 

 paler and greenish below ; feet and claws fleshy olive color, palest on 

 tarsus. Female — iris pale greenish yellow ; bill horn-color, flesh-color 

 at base of mandible; feet and claws pale grayish brown. 



Hartert '^ has reviewed the nomenclature and races of the rufous 

 chatterer and has come to conclusions that seem entirely correct to 

 me. In the present connection I have carefully examined some 78 

 specimens representing all three forms and find that Hartert's ar- 

 rangement (which is adopted by Sclater^") is wholly substantiated. 



The present series of the nominate form shows considerable varia- 

 tion in coloration, some specimens being practically as dark gen- 

 erally as the coastal race heuglmi^ but the two forms may be readily 

 distinguished by the color of the lores, which are rufous in the latter 

 and grayish in nihiginosa. Also, on the whole, heuglini is generally 

 darker above, more richly rufous below. It occurs along the East 

 African coast from the Juba River to Zanzibar. 



In central Tanganyika Territory another race, ejnini, is found. 

 This form is a very well-marked one, being characterized by having 

 the forehead and most of the crown distinctly grayish, with light 

 grayish tips to the feathers, a somewhat slenderer bill and smaller 

 wings (80-82 mm). Van Someren^^ has called birds from the 

 Mount Ken^^a district south to Simba and Masongoleni emini, but in 

 this he is mistaken. Birds from this region are typical rubighiosa. 



In the same paper van Someren also stated that birds from south- 

 central Kenya Colony are darker than specimens from northern 

 Uganda. I have seen a series from Gondokoro, in the extreme 

 southern part of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, which ought to be the 

 same as Ugandan birds, but which are indistinguishable from others 

 from Kenya Colony from the Ethiopian border south to the Athi 

 Eiver. 



Argya sharpli Oglivie-Grant and Reid is merely a giant example 

 of typical ruhiginosa, a conclusion that is by no means new but is 

 of interest because a suggestion has been made that races based on 

 size characters might be recognized in northeastern Africa. The 

 type of sharpii is said to have a wing length of 96.5 mm. In his 

 notes on the types of birds in the Tring Museum Hartert ^^ writes 

 that this unique type, although much larger, "agrees in other ways 

 perfectly with Crateropus (Argya) rubiginosus rubiginosus^ and it 

 was rash to describe it as 'new species' from this one specimen. 

 Without further material it cannot be ascertained whether this is a 

 distinct subspecies or an exceptionally large specimen." The type 



2« Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, vol. 43, p. 132, 1923. 



^ Systema avium ^^Ithiopicarum, pt. 2, p. 356, 1930. 



" Nov. Zool., vol. 29, p. 235, 1922. 



aa Nov. Zool., vol. 27, p. 486, 1920. 



