BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 103 



in Djamdjam. Lovat found it somewhere lower down, in the for- 

 ested valleys of southern Arussi-Gallaland. 



In Kenya Colony, it is found on all the wooded highlands from 

 Elgon to northern Kikuyu and Mount Kenya. According to van 

 Someren it does not occur in the southern Kikuyu forests. 



The breeding season is in April, as Erlanger found a nest with five 

 eggs on April 22 at Cialanco on the mountain route from Harrar to 

 Adis Abeba, Ethiopia. 



Grote*^ has suggested that P. atriceps is a racial form of abys- 

 sinicus, but, in spite of his argument that coloration is but a mask 

 to hide relationships, I do not agree with him. It may well be that 

 in some cases an apparently great difference in color may be due to 

 some small genetic difference, but when we have no evidence but that 

 afforded by the coloration, it is higlily speculative to claim that the 

 only available evidence is deceptive and to completely reverse its 

 implications. 



LIOPTILORNIS GALINIERI (Gnerin) 



Parisoma galinieri GufiKiN-MENE\iij:E, Rev. Zool., 1843, p. 162: "Abyssinia." 

 Specimens collected: 



1 male, 1 female, Anissi plateau, 9,000 feet, Ethiopia, February 20, 1912. 



2 males, Cofali, Arussi, Ethiopia, March 2-3, 1912. 



This species has been placed in several different genera, and even 

 families, by different workers, and a genus Parophasma was pro- 

 posed for it by Reichenow. I have carefully compared it with 

 Parisoina and Lioptilomis and can find no reason for keeping it dis- 

 tinct from the latter group. The only difference, aside from colora- 

 tion, is that the present bird has rather stiff frontal feathers, which 

 no other Lioptilomis possesses. Neumann ^° writes that he considers 

 this bird as nearest to Lioptilus nigricapill%is of South Africa and 

 mentions the nature of the frontal feathers as the chief point of 

 difference, on the basis of which he recognizes Parophasuia as a 

 genus. Sharpe ^^ definitely refers galinieri to Lioptilus. On the 

 other hand, Ogilvie-Grant ^- writes that he can not see any good rea- 

 son for separating Paropha^sma from '"''Parisoma as it is evidently of 

 the same genus as P. subcaeruleum, which is the type of that genus." 

 In a previous paper ^^ he states that it agrees well with P. subcaeru- 

 leum in structure as well as in coloration. A comparison of L. 

 galinieri and P. subcaeruleum shows that Ogilvie-Grant was misled 

 by the general similarity in coloration, but his statement that the two 

 are alike in structure is wholly wrong. The former has a much 



« Orn. Monatsb., vol. 34, pp. 53-54, 1926. 

 «> Journ. fttr Orn., 1906, pp. 281-282. 

 "^ Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1884, p. 231. 

 •a Ibis, 1913, p. 627. 

 w Ibis, 1900, p. 153. 



