BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 467 



SERINUS FLAVIVERTEX FLAVIVERTEX (Blanford) 



Crithagra flavivertcx Blanford, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. 4, p. 330, 1869: 

 Tigre; type in British Museum from Acligrat, Tigre Province, Ethiopia. 



Specimens collected: 



1 male, Adis Abeba, Ethiopia, January 9, 1912. 



1 male, 1 female, Axussi Plateau, Ethiopia, February 29, 1912. 



The yellow-crowned canary ranges from the northern parts of 

 Ethiopia south to Nyasaland and reappears in the Mossamedes dis- 

 trict of Angola. It is said to divide into three races — flavivertex, 

 sassii, and huUlensis. I have seen no material of either of the last 

 two and therefore can not form an opinion about them. They are 

 recognized by Sclater ® and by other authors who have had to deal 

 with them. 



Van Someren '' writes of his series of this bird from various lo- 

 calities in Kenya Colony, that it "is remarkable that eight males 

 collected in the Molo Forest, Mau, and the Aberdare Mountains are 

 not dark breasted, like those from Escarpment and Elgon, which 

 agree with the typical form of Abyssinia." This is rather ambigu- 

 ous and difficult to interpret, but it seems as if van Someren had 

 two types of plumages, which appeared to be geographic. I have 

 not see any Elgon or Escarpment specimens, but two Kilimanjaro 

 birds are different from Ethiopian ones seen. Granvik ^ writes that 

 his specimens from Elgon differ from others from elsewhere — 



* * * in not having the forehead, sides of head, lower surface and upper 

 tail-coverts yellow (mostly green). Besides, the wings and tail are blackish 

 brown, darker than in the type specimen. Whether the characters are con- 

 stant for the Elgon specimens or those occurring in East Africa, and they thus 

 belong to a separate form, I cannot at present decide, although it seems very 

 probable, as all my specimens are alike. * * * Neumann * * * de- 

 scribed * * * sassii, from Tschingogo forests, which has a yellow tail. 

 In Stockholm there is one 9 * * * from Kilimanjaro * * * which 

 agrees very well with mine in being predominantly green, while specimens 

 from Abessynia and the northern regions, on the other hand, are more yellow- 

 ish." 



It may be that there is a distinct race on Mount Elgon, but the Kili- 

 manjaro bird referred to by Granvik is not similar to the two Abbott 

 specimens seen by me. Neumann ^ likewise found Ethiopian and 

 Kilimanjaro birds to be alike. 



The Adis Abeba specimen is in a molting condition, especially in 

 the wings and tail ; the Arussi male is in fresh plumage, the female 

 in rather abraded condition. 



• Systema avium .^Sthiopicarum, pt. 2, pp. 817, 818, 1930. 



" Nov. Zool., vol. 29, p. 172, 1922. 



8 Journ. fiir Orn., 1923, Sonderheft, pp. 191-192. 



» Journ. fiir Orn., 1905, p. 354. 



