66 BULLETIis^ 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



While Sclater,** Meinertzhagen, and others consider the birds of 

 southwestern Ethiopia (Onio region, etc.) typical auratus, it may be 

 noted that Neumann *^ writes that a male he collected on the Omo 

 Eiver has only a sprinkling of black on the inner webs of the outer 

 rectrices and could be identified as notatus or as auratus equally 

 well. He decides that the birds of the Omo district are really inter- 

 grades between the two. In that area he found the species exclu- 

 sively in forests and not ascending above 6,000 feet in the mountains. 



Granvik ^"^ records both auratus and notatus from Mombasa. All 

 these birds must be notatus^ but his action indicates the variable 

 nature of these birds. I find the distribution of black on the outer 

 rectrices to vary considerably but have seen no specimens from East 

 Africa that I would confuse with true auratus. The rectricial pat- 

 tern character does not hold except for adult males. As a rule adult 

 males of notatus have the upper primary coverts broadly edged with 

 yellow, while in auratus these feathers are only minutely tipped with 

 yellow. 



The extreme variability of the orioles of the auratus and monacha 

 groups renders the systematics of these birds rather difficult, but it 

 is of great interest in that it appears to be largely mutational in char- 

 acter. The fact that so many patterns appear commonly indicates 

 the absence of selective value of this character. Then, by inference, 

 we are strengthened in our conclusions regarding the actuality of the 

 races by virtue of their average stability. 



For a female, the present example is rather large, having a wing 

 length of 137.5 mm, larger than the maximal figure given by van 

 Someren for notatus and larger than his minimal figure for auratus. 

 The bird is in fresh plumage. Granvik's birds taken at Mombasa 

 late in April were all in molt at the time. Birds from Kilimanjaro, 

 late in June and early in July, are in fresh plumage, as are also 

 some taken in October and November in central Tanganyika 

 Territory. 



ORIOLUS MONACHA PERMISTUS Neumann 



FiGUBES 6, 7 



Oriolus monachns permistus Neumann, Orn. Monatsb., 1904, p. 145 : Gadat, 



Gofa, Ethiopia. 

 Specimens collexted: 



1 adult male, 1 adult female, Hawash River, Ethiopia, February 11-12, 1912. 



1 adult male, Cofali, Ethiopia, March 3, 1912. 



1 subadult female, Malke, Ethiopia, March 3, 1912. 



1 adult male, 1 adult female, Sidamo Province, Ethiopia, March 4, 1912. 



5 adult males, 3 adult females, Aletta, Sidamo, Ethiopia, March 6-7, 1912. 



1 adult male (?), Lake Abaya, Ethiopia, March 21, 1912. 



** Systema avium iEthioplcarum, pt. 2, p. 647, 1930. 



"Journ. fur Orn., 1905, p. 232. 



*« Journ. fur Om., 1923, Sonderheft, pp. 145-146. 



