230 



BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



south to the Abaya lakes. In the drainage basin of the Sobat River 

 it is replaced by the little-known D. relchenowl Neumann, said to 

 differ from D. chocolatinus by its darker, almost blackish, not brown- 

 ish, gray upperparts, and darker breast. Over a quarter of a century 

 ago Neumann ^^ wrote that it was not clear whether this was a distinct 

 species or a geographical race of chocolatinus^ and so little has been 

 found out since that its status is still unsettled. It appears, however, 

 that the two are geographically complementary and may therefore 

 be looked upon as subspecifically related. 



The present form is one of the characteristic birds of the temperate 

 faunal zone of the Ethiopian highlands, its altitudinal range being 

 from about 6,000 to 10,500 feet. Neumann states that he never saw 

 it in the valleys. Erlanger ^^ found it in the "cypress" forests of 

 the mountains, and Mearns collected it in the juniper woods of the 

 Arussi Plateau. 



The breeding season is from January to late in March. Erlanger 

 found a nest with two small nestlings and one addled egg on March 

 21 near Gara Mulata. The present specimens are largely in worn 

 plumage, and, in fact, four of them are commencing to molt; all 

 of which is in agreement with what has been stated by Neumann and 

 Erlanger as to the breeding season. It appears that the birds 

 obtained by the Frick expedition had finished breeding not long 

 before they were collected. 



Inasmuch as this species is rather uncommon in American collec- 

 tions, I give the measurements of these 15 birds (table 45). 



Table 45. — Measurements of 15 specimens of Dioptroruis chocolatiuiis chocola- 

 tinus from Ethiopia 



"Journ. ftir Orn., 1905, p. 205. 

 « Ibid., p. 682. 



