38 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Zedlitz ** considers this bird as only subspecifically distinct from 

 Eremopteryx vertioalis of South Africa. There can be no question 

 that the two are more closely related to each other than to any mem- 

 bers of the genus, and the tendency for males of signata to replace 

 the chocolate-brown by blackish on the head and throat suggests a 

 close phylogenetic relationship between them. It seem3 more natural, 

 however, to consider them as species, inasmuch as the two groups 

 are easily identified at a glance and are separated geographically by 

 thousands of miles. 



Van Someren has recently ^^^ recorded paler specimens from West 

 Kudolf and darker ones from Marsabit and the Northern Guaso 

 Nyiro. 



TEPHROCORYS CINEREA ERLANGERI Neumann 



Tephrocorys cinerea erlangeri Neumann, Joiirn. fiir Orn., 1906, p. 239 : Sheikh 



Mahamed on the Webi River. 

 Specimens collected : 



7 adult males, 5 adult females, Adis Abeba, Ethiopia, December 31, 1911- 

 January 13, 1912. 



1 adult female, near Ankober, Ethiopia, January 21, 1912. 



1 adult female, Arussi Plateau, Ethiopia, February 14, 1912. 



The use of the name erlangeri for these birds is not necessarily to 

 be taken to mean that I recognize two races — ntficeps and erlangeri — 

 in Ethiopia, but merely that the former name can not be used. 

 Alauda ru-ficejps was described by Eiippell in 1840 *^ and is therefore 

 preoccupied by Alauda arvensis rujiceys Bechstein, 1795."*^ 



Neumann's name is the next oldest that has been applied to the 

 Abyssinian red-capped larks and must therefore be used in place 

 of rufx^eps Eiippell. Sherborn does not list Bechstein's name in his 

 "Index Animalium," but Hartert*^ lists it as a synonym of Alauda 

 arvensis ai^ensis with the comment that while Bechstein's name has 

 been considered a synonym of M elaroocorypha sibirica, it appears 

 more probable that the bird Bechstein had before him was an Alauda 

 arvensis. However, this is beside the point; both Bechstein and 

 Eiippell described their birds as in the genus Alauda. 



I have seen several birds from the Simien-Gojam district and find 

 them to be definitely darker above and below than more southern 

 birds. The northern birds I have named fuertesi.^^ 



** Journ. fur Orn., 1916, p. 64. 

 "» Nov. Zool., vol. 37, p. 332, 1932. 



*= Neue Wirbcltliicre, zu tier Fauua von Abyssinien gehorig, VOgel, p. 102, pi. 38, fig. 1: 

 Butschetzab, Slmien Province. 



*" Gemeinniitzige Naturgeschichte Deutschlands nach alien drey Reichen, vol. 4, p. 120. 

 " Die Vogel der palaarktischen Fauna, 1905, p. 244. 

 « i'roc. Biol. Soc. Waslilngton, vol. 45, p. 163, 1932. 



