BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 29 



GALERIDA CRISTATA SOMALIENSIS Reichenow 



Oalerida cristata somaliensis Reichenow, Journ. fiir Orn., 1907, p. 49: Zeila, 

 Somaliland. 



Specimens collected : 



9 adult males, 5 immature males, 7 adult females, 5 immature females, Hor, 

 Kenya Colony, June 2G-28, 1912. 



2 adult males, 1 immature male, 1 immature female, 18 miles southwest of 

 Hor, Kenya Colony, July 1-2, 1912. 



10 adult males, 6 immature males, 7 adult females, 2 immature females, 

 Dussia, Kenya Colony, July 3-A, 1912. 



1 adult male, 1 immature male, 1 immature female, Lake Rudolf, east and 

 south end, Kenya Colony, July 5-11, 1912. 



Soft parts: Sexes alike; iris brown; bill grayish olive; feet and 

 claws pale gray. 



The geographic variations of the crested lark have been studied by 

 a number of workers, all of whom had access to material representing 

 a larger number of races than were accessible to me. Hartert, 

 Bianchi, Zedlitz, Meinertzhagen, Lynes, and others have contributed 

 to this subject, and as my total comparative material comprises only 

 three Ethiopian races, I can do no better than to follow the arrange- 

 ment given by Sclater.^^ 



According to this authority, the Somali crested lark occurs from 

 the maritime plain of British Somaliland from Berbera to Zeila 

 and inland to the Lake E-udolf region. Van Someren^- records it 

 from as far west as Kobua River, west of Lake Rudolf, the western- 

 most locality known to me. (Van Someren had previously ^^ iden- 

 tified these birds as eritreae Zedlitz. However, this is now said to be 

 a synonym of aUi?'Ostris^ but the Kobua River birds certainly can 

 not be considered as of this Dongola race.) 



G. c. somaUe^isis is characterized by its short, stout bill and gen- 

 erally pale coloration (not so pale as isabeUina, however). Van 

 Someren writes that his birds from Kobua River have wings 102 to 

 105 mm in length. The present series are smaller, as may be seen 

 from the measurements of the adults collected given in table 4. 



All the adults (36) are in molt, the remiges and rectrices being 

 noticeably affected, but I doubt whether the wing lengths are thereby 

 rendered smaller than otherwise in the majority of cases. The molt 

 is, however, obviously the annual, complete one, i. e., the postnuptial 

 one. This indicates that the breeding season must have ended some 

 time in May, an implication that is corroborated by the fact that the 

 Juvenal birds are all in fresh plumage. The latter differ from the 

 adults in having the forehead and crown transversely barred, not 

 streaked longitudinally, in having the upper back likewise barred, 



=' Systcma avium iEtbiopicarum, pt. 2, pp. 325-326, 1930. 



s=Nov. Zool., vol. 29, p. 179, 1922. 



^ Journ. East Africa and Uganda Nat. Hist. Soc, no. 16, p. 13, Feb., 1921. 



