236 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



BATIS MOLITOR PUELLA Reichenow 



Batis puella Heichenow, Jahrb. Hamburg wiss. Anst., vol. 10, pt. 1, p. 125, 1893 : 



Bussisi, Tanganyika Territory- 

 Specimens collected : 



3 males, 1 female, Tana River near mouth of Thika River, Kenya Colony, 



August 23-27, 1912. 

 1 male, 1 female, Athi River near Juja Farm, Kenya Colony, August 31, 

 1912. 



As far as the total comparative material available indicates, the 

 conclusions reached by Sclater ^"^ seem correct. There are three valid 

 races of B. molitoi^ as follows : 



1. B. m. inolitor: Demaraland, Bechiianaland, the eastern Cape 

 Province, the Transvaal, and Natal. 



2. B. m. soror: The lower Zambesi Valley, the Shire drainage 

 basin, southern Nyasaland, through Mozambique, to eastern Tan- 

 ganyika Territory, north to Zanzibar. According to Sclater, B. 

 molitor litf oralis Neumann *^ and B. soror paUidiguJa van Someren *- 

 are synonyms of B. m. soror. I have seen no Zanzibar birds and can 

 not therefore form an opinion, but it may be that the birds of the 

 coastal districts of Tanganyika Territory are separable, as two 

 female specimens from Morogoro and Kilosa have darker brown 

 throat spots than a female from Lumbo. If further material bears 

 out this difference, these Tanganyika!! birds would have to be sepa- 

 rated under Neumann's iiame littoralls. This, I believe, will have 

 to be doi!e. In this event, the range of littoralis would be from 

 Zai!zibar and Morogoro south at least to the mouth of Rovuma 

 River. Schuster *^ collected a pair of birds in the mangroves at 

 Kingani in the delta of the Rovuma, a!!d foui!d them to be best 

 ide!itified as littoralis. Whether this form extends farther south is 

 not known. 



3. B. in. puella: From the Kivu area and Ruwenzori east through 

 Uga!!da to Kenya Colony, north to Mount Elgon and the Northern 

 Guaso Nyiro River, south through the interior of Ta!!ganyika Terri- 

 tory to Lake Nyasa, the Katanga, Northern Rhodesia, the Upper 

 Zambesi, and Angola. Again, owing to lack of adequate material, 

 I follow Sclater in assuming that B. m. taruensis van Someren ** and 

 B. m. montana Sjostedt *^ are not separable from puella. The former 

 race, at least, may be valid. 



The characters by which the races may be identified are as fol- 

 lows: B. m. soror differs from molitor \\\ having a narrower black 



^0 Bui!. Brit. Orn. Club, vol. 45, p. 52, 1925. 

 ■«i Journ. fiir Orn., 1007, p. 356 : Zanzibar. 



*2 Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, vol. 41, p. 103, 1921 : Lumbo, Mozambique. 

 « Journ. fiir Orn., 1926, pp. 712-713. 



" Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, vol. 41, p. 103, 1921 : Maungu, Kenya Colony. 

 *^ Wissenschaftliche Ergebni.sse der schwedischen zoologischen Expedition nach dem 

 Kilimandjaro . . . Deutsch-Ostafrika, 1905-6, etc., vol. 3, p. 109, 1908 : Mount Kilimanjaro. 



