BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 49 



southernmost form, occurring from Damaraland, the Okavango 

 River, and Elephants Vlei, northern Southwest African Protectorate, 

 through Angola, to the mouth of the Congo River, in the west, and 

 from Inhambane, Mozambique, north through Nyasaland, Rhodesia, 

 the Katanga, and Tanganyika Territory to the Kilimanjaro region. 

 According to Reichenow,^^ this form and the typical one occur to- 

 gether in the Loango coast, but it seems quite likely that the birds 

 either intergrade there or come together by migratory movements 

 only. 



4. H. s. hyhHda: Said to be paler below than monteiri but with 

 the white tail spots present in varying degrees, sometimes obsolete 

 or indicated only. Van Someren ^^ records this form from Mombasa, 

 Changamwe, Tsavo, Mbuyuni, Samburu, and Nairobi. I have seen 

 two pale-bellied birds from the Athi River, Kenya Colony, which fit 

 the present race, but while one of them has well-developed white 

 tail spots, the other completely lacks them. However, I recognize 

 the race because of the pale ventral coloration, not because of the 

 character of the tail spots. The variability of the latter character 

 in southern Kenya Colony suggests that in the Loango district in 

 West Africa the same sort of variation may occur, which, if true, 

 would explain the apparent overlapping of monteiri and senegdlensis. 

 In the United States National Museum there are three specimens of 

 monteiri from Kahe, Tanganyika Territory, which are dark-bellied 

 birds (typical monteiri). Kahe is only a short distance (about 40 

 miles) south of Mbuyuni, whence van Someren lists hyhrida, but the 

 former locality is much more humid than the latter. In fact, at 

 Kahe there is a sizeable palm forest, a sure indication of humidity, 

 while elsewhere, from Taveta through Mbuyuni to Voi the country 

 is a semiarid acacia savannah. If the intensity of coloration has 

 anything to do with the humidity of the environment, Mombasa 

 birds should be darker, like those from Kahe, but apparently they 

 are not. Yet the distribution of Tiyhrida as given by van Someren, is, 

 in general, coincident with that of the south Kenyan arid region. I 

 have not seen enough material to reject definitely hyhrida but 

 strongly suspect that further specimens will show its supposed char- 

 acters to be wholly individual. The two birds from the Athi River 

 are a case in point. 



All six birds collected are adults. The specimen from the Thika 

 River was just completing the tail molt when shot, the replacement of 

 the rectrices being centrifugal. In very fresh plumage the glossy 

 blue-black upper tail coverts are terminally edged with chestnut, but 

 this quickly wears off. The under tail coverts are quite variable in 



«B Die Vogel Afrikas, vol. 2, p. 417, 1903. 

 8«Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, vol. 41, p. 104, 1921. 



