BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 45 



nests with eggs on April 22 and another on May 16 near Wante in 

 the Garre-Lewin country. 



In Kenya Colony nests have been found in June, August, October, 

 and December. 



HIRUNDO RUFULA MELANOCRISSA (Ruppell) 



Ceropsis melanocrissus Ruppell, Systematische Uebersicht der Vogel Nordost- 



Afrika's, p. 17, pi. 5, 1845 : Temben, Ethiopia. 

 Specimens collected: 



1 male, 1 female, Adis Abeba, Ethiopia, January 13, 1912. 



1 male, 2 females, Hakaki River, Ethiopia, January 15, 1912. 



The two birds collected at Adis Abeba were a mated pair, accord- 

 ing to Mearns's notes. They are lighter, more whitish, less rufescent 

 on the breast and belly than the other three and have the dusky 

 shaft streaks better developed than the Hakaki specimens. In fact, 

 of the latter three, one has no indication of these streaks, one has 

 them very faintly indicated, and the other somewhat more so. 



A perusal of the literature is apt to mislead one into thinking that 

 this bird and H. r. emini must be considered specifically distinct, as 

 Erlanger '^^ records the latter as breeding north to the Hakaki River. 

 If his identification be correct, the fact that Mearns collected melan- 

 ocrlssa on that river would lead one to feel a necessity for keeping 

 them as species. Sclater ^* states the range of emini to be Uganda 

 and Kenya Colony, west to the eastern Congo and south to Nyasa- 

 land, and says nothing about its occurrence in Ethiopia. However, 

 it occurs in the southern part of Shoa and in the Omo region, and 

 possibly extends farther north in the lower country of eastern Ethi- 

 opia. In response to an inquiry of mine about the distribution of 

 melrniocrissa and emini in Ethiopia (on which basis rests their 

 specific or subspecific status). Professor Neumann has kindly written 

 me as follows (under date of October 5, 1929) : 



* * * in spite of the occurrence of both very near to each other in 

 southern Ethiopia (Omo region) I can not but consider them races. As to 

 H. domicella, it does not occur in Abyssinia. The specimen, collected by 

 Schimper in Tigre, no. 1689 of the Stuttgart Museum, recorded by v. Heuglin 

 as H. domicella is a female of H. daurica nipalensis, which is probably a 

 (rare ? ?) winter visitor to Abyssinia. 



It follows, then, that emini is only racially distinct from melan- 

 ocrissa as Sclater has correctly called it. 



Hartert" has suggested that several African Hirundos such as 

 senegalensis and cucuUata might be looked upon as representative 

 forms of daurica^ but certainly no student of African birds would 



•" Journ. fiir Orn., 1905, pp. 678-679. 



'* Systema avium ..^Sthiopicarum, pt. 2, p. 578, 1930. 



'5 Die Vogel der palaarktischen Fauna, p. 807, 1910. 



