BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 143 



THAMNOLAEA CINNAMOMEIVENTRIS SUBRUFIPENNIS Reichenow 



'J'hamnolaea subrufipennis Reichenow, Jouru. fur Orn., 18S7, p. 78: Near Ussure, 



Kondoa, Irangi district, Tanganyika Territory. 

 Specimens collected : 1 male, Gardula, Etliiopia, Marcli 27, 1912. 



The cliff-chat ranges from the Cape Province to Bogoshmd, south- 

 ern Eritrea, west to the French Sudan. The ranges of the races as 

 given by Sclater " seem to be correct. The present form occurs 

 from Nyasaland north through Tanganyika Territory, Kenya Colony, 

 Uganda, to the Gaima Hills in the northeastern Belgian Congo and 

 the Mongalla Province of the Sudan, and to southwestern Ethiopia 

 north to southern Shoa. This race has the tail feathers reddish 

 brown basally and the upper tail coverts entirely reddish brown. 

 In the northern half of Ethiopia (from Harrar to Tigre) and in 

 Bogosland it is replaced by the form alhiscapulata^ which differs in 

 having the long central upper tail coverts broadly tipped with black. 

 The nominate form of southern Africa differs from both in having 

 the rectrices black basally. On the upper waters of the Niger a 

 fourth race, haniharae^ occurs. This form, which I have not seen, 

 is said to resemble subrufi>pe7t.nis, but differs from it in having the 

 rufous color less extensive on the rump and on the breast in both 

 sexes; in having the black of the male less deep a black; in having 

 the white feathers of the bend of the wing of the male not wholly 

 white, but particolored black and white; and in having the slaty 

 breast feathers of the female with blacldsh shaft streaks. 



Neumann *^^ has described a race iisamharae from the Usambara 

 Mountains in northern Tanganyika Territory. This form is said to 

 resemble suhruflpennis but to lack the white posterior border of the 

 black pectoral area ; in other words, the black of the breast and the 

 rufous-brown of the abdomen are not separated by a narrow band of 

 white. Grote *^^ adds that the brown of the abdomen and rump is 

 darker in usamharae than in suhruflpennis. Sclater considers usain- 

 harae as "very doubtfully separable." I have seen no birds from 

 the Usambara Range, but a male from the Uluguru Mountains is 

 typical suhrufipe7inis. A female taken in the Uluguru Mountains 

 has the brown of the rump and abdomen much darker than the 

 male, but this seems to be the usual thing in suhruiipennis^ according 

 to Reichenow.'^" I have not seen any females from elsewhere to 

 compare it with. 



An additional, but also somewhat inconclusive, bit of evidence 

 against the validity of uuniiharae is furnished by van Someren, who 

 states '^^ that he finds "very little difference between the Uganda and 



" Systema avium .asthiopicarum, pt. 2, p. 463, 1930. 



^Orn. Monatsb., vol. 22, p. 11, 1914. 



"^Journ. fur Orn., 1921, p. 137. 



7** Die VOgfel Afrikas, etc., vol. 3, p. 792, 1905. 



" Nov. Zool., vol. 29, p. 243, 1922. 



