BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 



239 



extend completely across the inner web of the outermost rectrix. 

 The outer web is usually wholly white except basally. 



The size variations of the present series are shown in table 47. 



I have not been able to discover anything of the breeding season 

 of erlangeri^ but van Someren ^* found nyansae nesting in June and 

 November in Uganda, and Lynes found chadensis breeding in spring 

 in Darfur. 



According to Zedlitz/^ this bird is a mountain species and is 

 replaced in the lowlands of Eritrea and northern Ethiopia and 

 Somaliland by B. orientalis, but the two occur together at altitudes 

 of from 3,000 to 4,000 feet. He assumes the breeding season of 

 erlangeri to be in February. 



Table 47. — Measurements of 12 specimens of Batis minor erlangeri from Ethiopia 



BATIS ORIENTALIS BELLA (Elliot) 



Pachyprora hella Elliott, Field Columbian Mus. Publ. Orn. Ser., Publ. 17, vol. 1, 



no. 2, p. 47, 1897 : Hullier, Somaliland. 

 Specimens colijx!tb3>: 



5 males, 3 females, Dire Daoua, Ethiopia, December 1-21, 1911. 



1 male, Sadi Malka, Ethiopia, January 30, 1912. 



Batis onentalis somaliensis Neumann is a synonym. 



This species may be told from B. jiiinor, which occurs together 

 with it, in the following way : The females of onentalis have a wide, 

 broad, brown pectoral band; those of minor have a narrow, much 

 darker brown breast band; males of 07'ientaNs have bluish-gray 

 crowns, while those of 7ninor have blackish crowns. Furthermore, 

 the races of minor are all correspondingly larger than those of orien- 

 talis^ quite the opposite of what the name implies. 



Batis orientalis inhabits Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somaliland. I 

 know of no instance of its ranging into the Sudan or northern Kenya 

 Colony. It breaks up into two races, as follows : 



"Ibis, 191 G, p. 381. 



^^ Journ fiir Orn., 1910, pp. 792-793. 



