54 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Erlanger ^® found this bank swallow nesting in July and August 

 near Adis Abeba. In Darfur Lyne^ records stulmiensis as breeding 

 late in autumn. Both von Heuglin and Blanford record seeing vast 

 swarms in April and June and September and it has been suggested 

 from this that the species is migratory. 



Riparia minor schoensis Reichenow ^ is a synonym, as far as I can 

 see. 



Sclater ^ recognizes schoensis, but I fail to find any distinctive 

 characters to separate it from minor. If additional material should 

 show schoensis to be valid, the present specimens would have to be 

 referred to that race. 



PTYONOPROGNE RUFIGULA RUFIGULA (Fischer and Reichenow) 



Coiyle rufiffula Fischbib and Reichenow, Journ. fiir Orn., 1884, p. 53 : Lake 



Naivasha, Kenya Colony. 

 Specimens collected: 1 male, Endoto Mountains, Kenya Colony, July 22, 1912. 



The African rock martin is closely related to the large pale South 

 African species P. fuligula and has, indeed, been considered con- 

 specific with it by many writers. I have not sufficient specimens to 

 delve very deeply into the systematics of this species and so follow 

 Lynes,^ who has examined a great deal of material. 



According to this investigator, the range of rufigula is from north- 

 ern Angola and the Shire Highlands of Nyasaland north to northern 

 Nigeria, French Equatorial Africa (Ubangi-Shari district), Uganda, 

 and Kenya Colony. To this should be added the Maneguba district 

 of Cameroon* and Kajo Kaji, southern Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.^ 



Mackworth-Praed ® noted that the birds of Ethiopia and Bogos- 

 land, Eritrea, were slightly larger and paler than those of Kenya 

 Colony {rufigula) and referred to them as "/?. ruflgula subsp. ?" 

 He guessed, but seemed not too sure of his guess, that Zedlitz's form 

 Riparia rupestris pusilla was probably conspecific with rufigula and 

 that pusilla was the name of the Ethiopian and Eritrean specimens. 

 Lynes not only corroborated this, but showed that pusilla occurred 

 westward across the Sudan to Darfur. 



Sclater ^ considers rufigula specifically distinct from obsoleta. If 

 it were not for the fact that P. o. arabica and P. r. pusilla both 

 occur in Eritrea, it would seem better to consider them both one 



«> Journ. fiir Orn., 1905, p. 674. 



1 Journ. fiir Orn., 1920, p. 88 : Adis Abeba. 



= Systema avium ..^thiopicarum, pt. 2, p. 584, 1930. 



»Ibi.s, 1926, pp. 402-405. 



^Bannerman and Bates, Ibis, 1924, p. 228. 



6 Sclater and Mackworth-Praed, Ibis, 1918, p. 716. 



»Ibls, 1917, p. 389. 



' Systema avium .^Ethiopicarum, pt. 2, p. 585, 1930. 



