240 



BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



1. B. o. onentalis: Eritrea, Bogosland, south to the western part 

 of the Hawash Valley and into northern Shoa. 



2. B. o. hell a: Northern Somaliland, the eastern part of the Ha- 

 wash Valley, south to eastern Arussi-Gallaland and Gurraland to the 

 northern part of Italian Somaliland. This form is similar to orien- 

 talis but has the crown lighter in both sexes, and is also larger, but 

 the size variations of this form completely include those of the typical 

 race. Wings — orientalis^ 52-56; hella^ 52.5-59 mm. 



The dimensions of the present series are as shown in table 48. 



Table 48. — Measurements of eiffht specimens of Batis orientalis bella froyn 



Ethiopia 



The birds vary considerably in the extent of white on the nape 

 and upper back, and also in fronts of the eyes, but these differences 

 are wholly individual. One of the males, which is apparently sub- 

 adult, as it has some reddish-brown feathers on the lateral ends of 

 the black pectoral band, is peculiar in that the rectrices, instead of 

 being bluntly rounded terminally, are noticeably attenuated, the 

 white tips on the outermost pair are three times as wide as in any 

 of the other specimens, and it has the inner web narrowly margined 

 with white, as well as having the whole of the outer web white. 



Erlanger^^ found a nest with two eggs in northern Somaliland 

 on February 21. This is the only indication of the breeding season 

 of which I know, but the season is probabl}^ fairly prolonged. 



Mearns found this bird to be common along the Hawash River 

 and from Dire Daoua to Gada Bourca. 



BATIS PERKED Neumann 



Batis perkeo Nehl^mann, Journ. fiir Orn., 1907, p. 352: Darassam, southeast of 



Lake Abaya, Ethiopia. 

 Specimens cjollected: 



1 adult male, Indunumara Mountains, Kenya Colony, July 17, 1912. 



1 adult male, 40 miles south of Malele, Kenya Colony, July 30, 1912 



Van Someren ^^ has considered perkeo to be a race of Batis soror. 

 The females of soror (and its geographic form pallidigula), how- 



^« Journ. fiir Orn., 1905, p. 685. 

 "Nov. Zool., vol. 29, p. 101, 1922. 



