146 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



adult plumages, but it is obvious that there is au unusual sequence of 

 plumages, the further study of which, when additional material 

 becomes available, should be of interest. 



The second of the three females (from Aletta) was apparently the 

 mate of the male killed at tlie same shot. 



According to Neumann, young birds lack the yellowish stripe on 

 the middle of the throat, which is present in older females. 



The males have vrings measuring from. 103.5 to 106.5 mm; the 

 females, 107 to 108 mm. I doubt whether this size difference would 

 be found to hold with a longer series. 



On the Hakaki River, near Adis Abeba, Erlanger found a nest 

 with three eggs on August 12. The eggs were milky white, some- 

 what suffused wdth greenish, and abundantly speckled with fine pale 

 rusty brown dots.. They averaged about 25 by 19 mm. 



SAXICOLA TORQUATA AXILLARIS (Shelley) 



Pratiiicola axiUaris Shixlky, Pruc. Zool. Soc. Loudon, 1884, p. 556: Mount 



Kiliuianjaro, 7,000 feet. 

 Specimens collected : 6 males, 5 females, Escarpment, 7,390 feet, Kenya Colony, 



September 4-6, 1912. 



In studying these birds and those of the other races represented in 

 this collection, I have been guided largely by Meinertzhagen's review 

 of the group.^° The total material available to me from eastern 

 Africa has been 118 specimens of 7 races. I agree with Sclater ^^ 

 that promhcua Hartert is a valid race (this was described after 

 Meinertzhagen's revision) and differ from both Sclater and Meinertz- 

 hagen in considering the Uganda birds as distinct from Kenyan 

 ax'iUarls. I must confess to some hesitancy in naming the Uganda 

 birds, as Meinertzhagen has examined the type of eimnae Hartlaub, 

 described from Ruganda, and finds it identical with typical axiUaris, 

 yet all the Ugandan birds I have seen are smaller than Kenyan 

 axiUaris and have the brown on the breast very much more restricted. 

 For the present I use Hartlaub's name for them in spite of Meinertz- 

 hagen's notes. 



In the areas traversed by the Frick expedition there are two resi- 

 dent races of this bird, while another form, which breeds in the 

 Urals and Caucasus, occurs in winter in Ethiopia. The two resident 

 forms are axiUaris and aJbofasciata; the winter visitor is maura. The 

 Indian race, indica, is also said to winter in Ethiopia, but I know of 

 no definite records. The two resident races are very easily distin- 

 guished by the fact that adult males of alhofasciata completely lack 

 the rufous-brown on the breast, which is so conspicuous in axiUaris. 



^Ibis, 1922, pp. 20-29. 



" Systema avium -Ethiopicarum, pt. 2, p. 468, 1930. 



