154 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Besides the above series, I have examined eight other specimens 

 including some practically topotypical birds. The combined series 

 of 26 birds shows considerable variation and throws some doubt on 

 the validity of r-uppennis and rniiUeri. Tlie latter race, described 

 from southern Italian Somaliland, is considered a synonym of 7^^- 

 pennis by Sclater ^ although Gyldenstolpe ^ considers it a valid race. 

 I have seen no Somaliland birds, but a specimen from Temkaka, 

 Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (therefore unquestionably of the nominate 

 race) is grayer than a series from Gondokoro and Rhino Camp. 

 However, it is definitely a brownish bird, while Zedlitz " calls mulleri 

 almost a pure gray-backed form. 



Some 15 or more years ago Mearns identified the female from the 

 Tana River, listed above, and another female from Mount Garguess 

 as I'uflpennis. I do not find any significant difference between them 

 and females of undoubted guttata. I find that plumage wear pro- 

 duces very marked alterations in appearance of these birds, and I 

 would be very cautious in recognizing races. However, inasmuch as 

 my material is so very weak in coastal specimens; I prefer to follow 

 Sclater, and, temporarily at least, recognize 'ruftpennis. Van 

 Someren ^^ finds that birds from the Taveta-Ukamba region are 

 smaller than others from Lake Rudolf, and ''darker on the mantle; 

 the crown is more distinctly streaked and the spotting on the under- 

 side more numerous, larger, and blacker. They thus differ consider- 

 ably from the Lamu race rwfipennis. Wings 76-83 mm." These 

 birds are probably intermediates between guttata and itifpennis, as 

 the latter has been obtained not far from Taveta — at Kahe, by W. L. 

 Abbott. Likewise, the birds from the Morogoro and Dodoma area 

 of north-central Tanganyika Territory are intermediate, but, on the 

 whole, nearer to the nominate form. 



The adults collected show the range of size variations given in table 

 32. A male and a female from Gato River (April 8 and May 4) and 

 a female from Malata (June 22) are in molt. 



Neumann ^- writes that this bird is an inhabitant of the dense bush 

 along placid streams and lakes in the hot valleys of southern Shoa. 



A female shot on April 8 at Gato River contained a fully developed 



egg- 

 Besides the specimens listed above, Mearns saw this species on the 

 following occasions : Chaffa villages, June 23-25, 120 birds ; Endoto 

 Mountains, July 21-24, 25 seen; river, 24 miles south of Malele, 

 July 29, 10 noted; 40 miles south of Malele, 2 birds seen. 



^Systema avium iEthiopicarum, pt. 2, p. 481, 1930. 

 » Arkiv for Zool., vol. 19A, no. 1, p. 54, 1926. 

 "Journ. fiir Oin., 1916, p. 108. 

 " Nov. Zool., vol. 29, p. 236, 1922. 

 »* Journ. fUr Orn., 1906, pp. 283-284. 



