BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 133 



Arabian form, and its habitat is also far away from Abyssinia and 

 North Somaliland." 



I have seen no Kikuyu birds, but it may be noted that van Some- 

 ren ^^ obtained two birds at Kaivasha, which, he writes, agree with 

 the Arabian form sclateri and not with Doherty's birds. 



There are three forms of this rock thrush, as follows: 



1. P. r. rufocmerea: The highlands of British Somaliland, Bogos- 

 land, and of Ethiopia from Tigre to southern Shoa, and to northern 

 Uganda and to Mount Elgon. 



2. P. r. sclateri: The highlands of Yemen, southwestern Arabia. 

 This form is similar to the typical one, but has wider dark tips on 

 the outer rectrices (10-14 mm wide in sclateri; 1 or 2-7 mm in 

 7"iif odnerea) . 



3. P. r. tenuis: Mount Lololokui, northern Kenya Colony. Similar 

 to sclateri in the width of the dark tips of the rectrices but definitely 

 paler, especially on the breast and abdomen, than either of the other 

 races. This difference appears to be more marked in males than in 

 females. 



Zedlitz 3- suggests that typical mfocinerea is a relatively pale form 

 (with narrow dark rectricial tips) inhabiting northern Ethiopia and 

 Eritrea, while the birds of southern Ethiopia, south through north- 

 eastern Uganda to Mount Elgon and to Navisha are darker and may 

 be a valid, undescribed race. If so, the birds from Gidabo River, Gate 

 River, and Sagon River would belong to the darker form. I feel 

 that Zedlitz is probably correct, but in the absence of typical Simien 

 materia! I have to let the matter rest as it is. 



The dimensions of the present seven adults and of three specimens 

 of tenuis are shown in table 27. 



Von Heuglin ^^ writes that the altitudinal range of this bird is 

 from 1,000 to 10,000 feet above the sea in Eritrea and northern 

 Ethiopia. Jackson ^* found it plentiful in the Mau Plateau in w^est- 

 ern Kenya Colony, above 6,000 feet. 



Erlanger ^^ found this bird to be rather local in its distribution. It 

 was not uncommon around Harrar, but in the Shoan lakes district 

 and in Arussi-Gallaland it was very scarce. Blanf ord ^^ found it 

 "by no means rare on the highlands and found as low as about 4,500 

 feet. It appears to be a permanent resident, as I saw it in the hills 

 close to the Anseba valley, in pairs, in July." 



31 Nov. ZooL, vol. 29, p. 241, 1922. 



32Journ. fur Cm., 1911, pp. 77-78. 



S3 Ornithologie Nordost-Afrika's etc., toI. 1, pp. 369-370, 1869. 



3< Ibis, 1901, p. 75. 



sojourn, fur Orn., 1905, p. 743. 



3« Observations on the geology and zoology of Abyssinia, etc., p. 358, 1870. 



106220—37 10 



