BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 83 



yet it seems to be a valid form. In the original description of this 

 bird, Mearns characterized it as differing from harahae in having a 

 larger black spot on the middle of the breast, "deep gull gray sides 

 and flanks, with a broad buffy-white collar separating the dark 

 colors of the sides and chest from the black of the throat, and a 

 darker general coloration." I find that the size of the black breast 

 spot is a variable character in harakae, some specimens having it as 

 large as in fricki. Zedlitz mentions that a specimen from Dire 

 Daoua and another from Daroli River have a very large black patch 

 on the throat and breast, but suggests that this is merely a sign of 

 old age. More material will have to be gotten together before it 

 will be possible to say much about the constancy of this character, 

 but fricki is definitelj^ darker on the sides and flanks than harakae. 

 Van Someren ^^ lists birds from the Northern Guaso Nyiro as fricki^ 

 but in this I think he is mistaken as these birds should be harakae. 

 The same is true of the specimens from Archers Post recorded by 

 him more recently.^^ 



In northeastern Africa there are three forms of this gray titmouse. 

 They are : 



1. P. a. thruppi: British and Italian Somaliland south to eastern 

 Jubaland. 



2. P. a. fricki: Northeastern Gallaland (the region about Dire 

 Daoua and Harrar). 



3. P. a. harakae : Kenya Colony from the Endoto and Indunumara 

 Mountains to the Teita and Taveta district. 



These three may be distinguished in the following way : P. a. 

 fricki has the sides and flanks noticeably darker grayish than either 

 of the others; thruppi has the inner margins of the remiges more 

 buffy, less whitish, and the general tone of the abdomen also more 

 buffy, than in harakae. Also, harakae has only a very narrow buffy 

 whitish band bordering the black of the occiput ; fricki and thruppi 

 have a wider pale band on the nape. 



The male specimen is the type. Both it and the female are in 

 rather abraded plumage. Their dimensions are as follows: Male — 

 wing, 65; tail, 46.5; culmen, 10.5; tarsus, 17.5 mm. Female — wing, 

 64; tail, 48.5; culmen, 10.5; tarsus, 17.5 mm. 



The breeding season is probably late in March and early in April. 

 Erlanger ®^ shot birds with swollen gonads on March 19 and April 6 

 in southern Ginir and Gurraland and found fledged young (of hara- 

 kae) at Kismayu in July. 



soNov. Zool., vol. 29, p. 204, 1922. 



s^ Journ. East Africa and Uganda Nat. Hist. Soc, no. 35, p. 66 (142), 1930. 



»8 Jouru. fiir Orn., 1907, p. 52. 



