BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 51 



(although heavier than in puella or ahyssinica) , the chestnut crown 

 patch lighter and less extensive caudally than in maxima. South 

 Africa north through the Congo and Tanganyika Territory, over- 

 lapping and intergrading with abyssinica in the northern half of 

 Tanganyika Territory. Eeichenow ''^ has investigated the status of 

 unitatis and has found that throughout northeastern, eastern, south- 

 ern, and western Africa one finds birds with heavy, broad streaks 

 and others with finer marks, and suggests that the difference is not 

 correlated with geography but with age, the younger birds having 

 relatively narrower streaks than the older individuals. I am unable 

 to find any evidence in support of this suggestion, as many of the 

 birds with narrow streaks examined are fully adult. Very young 

 birds have the streaks less distinct, more dusky, than in adults, but 

 the characters of unitatis seem to be those of mature specimens. 

 However, if unitatis does occur in Kenya Colony, as Sclater and 

 Mackworth-Praed claim, then it is not a valid form, as I have com- 

 pared birds from Kenya and from northern Tanganyika with 

 Guerin's type of abyssinica and find no differences. I assume that 

 southern birds (north to southern Tanganyika, and thence north 

 through western Tanganyika Territory to Ruanda, Urundi, and west- 

 ern Uganda) are uniformly more heavily streaked below than abys- 

 sinica and are separable as unitatis Sclater and Mackworth-Praed. 



The single example collected is in molt and badly damaged by the 

 shot, so its measurements are of no significance. 



In Ethiopia the small stripe-breasted swallow is widely distributed 

 from Bogosland and the Eritrean border south through Shoa and 

 Arussi-Gallaland. Sharpe and Wyatt,^^ quoting von Heuglin, state 

 that its altitudinal range is between 3,500 and 10,000 feet. Brehm 

 never found it along the Red Sea coastal plain, but only in the 

 mountains of Bogosland where it breeds in cliffs and under over- 

 hanging rocks. 



In Kenya Colony it appears to breed throughout the year. 



Besides the specimen collected, Mearns noted this swallow at the 

 following places: On the Upper Hawash River colonies were found 

 early in February; then the species was not seen again (or at least 

 not recorded) until August 9, when 20 were noted near Meru, and 

 50 more were seen the following day at the same place; 20 miles 

 east of Meru, August 11, 100 birds; Tharaka district, August 12, 200 

 seen; Tana River, August 23-26, 10 birds; east of Ithanga Hills, 

 August 26, 2 seen; 20 miles above the mouth of the Thika River, 

 August 27, 4 observed; west of Ithanga Hills, August 28, 4 birds; 

 Athi River, August 31, 4 noted. 



"Journ. fur Orn., 1921, pp. 265-26G. 



^'A monograph of the Hirundinidae or family of swallows, p. 344, 1889. 



