178 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



PHYLLOLAIS PULCHELLA (Cretzschmar) 



Malurus pulchelltis Cretzschmab, Atlas zu der Reise im nordlichen Afiika, 

 Vogel, p. 53, pi. 35, 1830 : Kordofan. 



SPE3CIMENS COIXECTED : 



3 males, 2 females, Dire Daoua, Ethiopia, November 30~December 22, 1911. 

 1 male, Sadi Malka, Ethiopia, January 28, 1912. 

 1 female, Serre, Ethiopia, February 13, 1912. 

 1 male, 1 female. Lake Abaya, Ethiopia, March 19-20, 1912. 

 1 male, 4 females, 1 uusexed, Gate River near Gardula, Ethiopia, April 6- 

 May 13, 1912. 



This little warbler occurs from Eritrea and Sennar west to the 

 Divide Eange in central Darfiir, and south to the Ituri district of 

 the Belgian Congo (Kasenyi, west of Lake Albert and to Ruwenzori), 

 Uganda, and Kenya Colony, south to Mount Meru near Kilimanjaro 

 in extreme northeastern Tanganyika Territory. Sclater ^^ gives 

 the Athi River as its southern limit, but Sjostedt ^^ lists a specimen 

 from the Ngare-na-nj'uki River near Mount Meru. 



Van Someren ^^ finds that southern birds are darker on the back 

 than northern ones. I have but one southern specimen and cannot 

 form an opinion, but if this difference should be found to hold, 

 Sharpe's name hildeganlae ^* would be available for the southern 

 form. Gyldenstolpe ^^ writes that a specimen from Eritrea is con- 

 siderably paler, more olive-brown, than others from Kenya Colony, 

 Uganda, and the eastern Congo. 



In Ethiopia this bird appears to be restricted to the drainage 

 basin of the Nile and its tributaries, the southern Shoan lake region, 

 and the lowlands of the Somaliland border. It does not occur in the 

 highlands at all (i. e., above about 4,500 feet). In Eritrea, Zedlitz ^"^ 

 found it only once, and Jesse did not meet with it at all. The single 

 specimen obtained by Blanford ^^ is only questionably from Eritrea, 

 as Blanford writes that, "the label * * * has unfortunately been 

 lost, and I have forgotten the exact locality. I believe, however, that 

 the bird was shot in the Anseba valley," which would imply that it 

 probably came from Ethiopia. 



In the Sudan it is known from Sennar, Kordofan, Darfur, Upper 

 Nile, and Mongalla provinces. In Darfur, Lynes "^ found it fairly 

 common in the wooded country at the base of Jebel Marra, and 



<» Systema avium iEthiopicarum, pt. 2, p. 530, 1930. 



^ Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse der schwedischen zoologiscben Expedition nach dem 

 Kilimandjaro . . . Deutsch-Ostafrika, 1905-6, etc., Vogel, p. 155, 1908. 

 "Nov. Zool., vol. 29, p. 223, 1922. 



** Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, vol. 10, p. 28, 1899 : Athi River. 

 •«Kongl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl., 1924, p. 144. 

 •«Journ. fur Orn., 1911, p. 68. 



•^Observations on the geology and zoology of Abyssinia, etc., p. 374, 1870. 

 w Ibis, 1925, pp. 97-98. 



