116 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



The forms to be taken into consideration are : P. sharpei Shelley/^ 

 P. rufescens Hartlaub,^° P. pauper Sharpe,^^ and P. s. frichi Mearns.^'- 

 There is no need to go into the question of Eeichenow's Calamocichla 

 schillinffsi, as Neumann ^^ conchisively showed it to be a synonym of 

 sharpei. 



P. sharpei is said to be more rufescent than P. strepitaiis. So too 

 is P. rufescens. In the present series this character is found to be 

 very variable. Furthermore, a topotype of sharpei in the Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology (A. Loveridge collection) is not any more 

 rufescent than the most rufous examples of fricJd. 



P. pauper is said to be distinguished from P. strepitans by its 

 brown tail and absolute want of any olive shade in the plumage. 

 Here again we have a rufous bird compared with a less rufous one, 

 a condition that can be matched throughout the range of P. strepitans. 



Finally, P. s. fricki is said to have the back drab-color, while in 

 strepitans it is sayal brown and in paifper snuff brown. Again, the 

 characters mean i¥)thing ; sex, wear, age, and season all have a role in 

 this, and on top of it all is the factor of individual variation. If I 

 were to attempt to recognize forms based on degree of rufescence in 

 the brown, I would have to call them all species with wholly coin- 

 cidental ranges — an obviously improbable state of affairs. 



As additional evidence against the validity of racial forms in this 

 species, it may be noted that Neumann ^* collected two specimens in 

 southern Ethiopia. These he compared with the types of strepitans, 

 sharpei, and pauper and found them all alike. He found that 

 sharpei and pauper were described by error, as their respective au- 

 thors compared them with series of P. capensis suahelicus, which they 

 mistook for strepitans. 



Sclater gives the range of the present species as "Upper Wliite Nile 

 (Lado) and south-western Abyssinia through the drier parts of 

 Kenya Colony to Dar es Salaam and the coastal districts of Tan- 

 ganyika Territory." To this may be added the northeastern Belgian 

 Congo, southern Shoa, Gallaland, and Somaliland. 



Aside from the great variation in intensity of shade of tjie dorsal 

 coloration, the species shows a good deal of dimensional variation. 

 Thus, van Someren ^^ found the wings to range from 65 to 82 mm. 

 I do not find nearly so great a range in the present series, as may be 

 seen from the measurements given in table 22. 



" Ibis, 1880, p. 334 : Dar es Salaam. 



8" Orn. Centralb., 1882, p. 91 : Lado. 



«' I'roc. Zool. Soc. London, 1895, p. 489 : SheVle River. Gallaland. 



" Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 41, no. 25, p. 1, 1914 : Tana River. 



**' Nov. Zool., 1908, p. 244. 



^ .Tourn. fiir Orn., 190G. p. 240. 



wNov. Zool., vol. 29, 1022, p. 184. 



