132 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



In Kenya Colony the birds arrive around Nairobi and tlie Kif t Valley 

 in the last week of October. 



In spring the majority leave in March, but birds have been found 

 in Ethiopia until practically the end of April. 



The birds molt in their winter quarters from December to March, 

 but this molt is incomplete as it does not aifect the remiges and 

 rectrices. 



Mearns noted a few individuals at Gidabo River, March 15-17 ; at 

 the Abaya Lakes, March 18-26, and between the Abaya Lakes and 

 Gardula, March 26-29. After that he saw no more. 



Roberts 2^ has split the genus Monticola into four, establishing 

 Petrornis for M. rupest'ns, Golonocinda for M. hrevipes, and Notio- 

 cichla for M. expJorator. I cannot see any advantage in this split- 

 ting, as the forms in question are not really generically separable. 



PETROPHILA RUFOCINEREA RUFOCINEREA (Ruppell) 



Saxicola rufodncrea Ruppell, Neue Wirbelthiere, zu der Fauna von Abysslnien 

 gehorg, etc., Vogel, p. 76, pi. 27, 1837: Simien Province, Ethiopia. 



Specimens collected): 



1 unsexed (male?), Oiirso, Ethiopia, November 15, 1910. (Ouellar.d Coll.) 

 1 male, Serre, Ethiopia, February 13, 1912. 



1 female. Ha wash River, .Ethiopia, February 13, 1912. 



2 females, Gidabo River, Ethiopia, March 16-17, 1912. 



1 immature male, 1 adult female, Gato River near Gardula, Ethiopia, April 



12-13, 1912. 

 1 male, Sagon River, Ethiopia, May 19, 1912. 



Soft parts: Iris dark brown; bill all black; feet and claws brown- 

 ish black. 



The birds from eastern Ethiopia (Hawash River and Ourso) have 

 wider dark tips to the rectrices than do the Shoan birds. This is of 

 interest in that it is in just this character that the birds of south- 

 eastern Arabia, the race sclateri Hartert, differ from typical 

 rufocine7'ea. 



In his description of sclateri, Hartert ^° writes that there "is prob- 

 ably a third race in East Africa. A male collected by William 

 Doherty on the Escarpment, Kikuyu Mountains, has the brown on 

 the inner web of the outer rectrices nearly 15 mm wide, and a wing 

 of about 90 mm. A female from the same place has also rather much 

 brown on the lateral rectrices, while two young females are rather 

 brown on the upper side. More material will very likely show the 

 Kikuyu bird to belong to a third sub-species, for it can hardly be the 



"Ann. Transvaal Mus., vol. 8, p. 228, 1922. 

 '"Nov. Zool., vol. 24, pp. 459-lGO, 1917. 



