112 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



PYCNONOTUS BARBATUS SCHOANUS Neumann 



FiGUBE 11 



Pycnonotus tartatus schoaniis Neumann, Orn. Monatsb., vol. IS, p. 77, 1905: 



Kilbe, Kollu Province, Shoa. 

 Specimens collected: 



5 males, 2 females, Dire Daoua, Ethiopia, November 27-December 20, 1911. 



1 female, Gada Bourca, Ethiopia, December 25, 1911. 



3 males, 2 females, Sadi Malka, Ethiopia, December 21, 1911-January 31, 

 1912. 



1 female, Adis Abeba, Ethiopia, January 8, 1912. 



1 female, Malke, Ethiopia, March 3. 1912. 



1 male, 2 females, Aletta, Ethiopia, March 10-11, 1912. 



3 males, 1 female, Gardula, Ethiopia, March 27-28, 1912. 



5 males, 2 females, Gato River near Gardula, Ethiopia, April 3-27, 1912. 



The forms of the white-vented brown bulbul have been reviewed 

 by several workekrs, such as Harter/° Sclater and Praed/^ and oth- 

 ers, and I find their general conclusions as modified and set down by 

 Sclater ^^ to be correct. I have studied a series of some 55 specimens 

 representing five of the six races. Of the form found in British 

 Somaliland, P. somaliensis Reichenow, I have seen no material, but 

 I doubt whether it is a distinct species as Sclater rates it. In fact, 

 Hartert writes that it is very closely allied to arsinoe, the north 

 Sudan form, "so closely that even Prof. Reichenow called it P. arsinoe 

 somaliensis. It differs only by its smaller size, the wings meas- 

 uring in the $ , 87-91, in the 5 about 77 to 84 mm. It is thus evi- 

 dent that this form is not easily recognizable, and I should doubt its 

 distinctiveness if it were not for the slender bills which it exhibits 

 when compared with P. h. arshioe. Reichenow's statement that it is 

 paler brown on the upper surface is not correct as far as one can 

 make out from the 8 rather worn specimens collected by Baron von 

 Erlanger. On the contrary, judging from a few fresh growing 

 feathers, I am inclined' to think that somaliensis is rather darker 

 than arsinoe, not paler . . ." Yet, in the same paper, in tabulating 

 the forms of P. harhatus, Hartert characterizes somaliensis as 

 "smaller than arsinoe, but of about the same pale coloration." 



I have gone into the question of the characters of somaliensis be- 

 cause of the possibility that the birds of the Hawash Valley (Dire 

 Daoua and Gada Bourca) might represent a degree of intergrada- 

 tion between schoanus and the northern Somali race. As may be seen 

 from the measurements given in table 21, these specimens are, on the 

 whole, rather small, but the difference between them and those from 

 Shoa is not great or constant enough to have any real significance. 



'"Nov. Zool., vol. 1.3, pp. 390-391, 1906. 



"Ibis, 1918, p. 697. 



''"Systema avium .Ethiopicarum, pt. 2, pp. 372-373, 1930. 



