210 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Elgon amaurora, while van Someren ^^ records orientalis from chat 

 mountain. 



The two forms differ in color — orientalis is more richly colored 

 below, with bright tawny breast, sides, flanks, thighs, and under tail 

 coverts; the chin, throat, and middle of the abdomen white; while 

 amauTora has the white areas lightly suffused with buff, and the rest 

 of the underparts generally paler than in orientalis. On the upper- 

 parts atnaurora is the darker form, being grayer, more fuscous, less 

 rufescent, as well as darker, than orientalis. Van Someren seems to 

 have made a slip of the pen in this regard as he writes that orientalis 

 is "very much richer below and darker above" than amawrora. As a 

 matter of fact, the former is more rufescent above and below, lighter 

 above, than the latter form. Not infrequently, however, examples 

 occur in the range of one that closely resemble typical examples of 

 the other race, but on the whole the dorsal color characters hold good. 

 That this observation is not peculiar to the material I have examined 

 is evidenced by Granvik's notes on his four Elgon birds {anmurora) ^ 

 two of which "recall orientalis in the light, pale colour of the under- 

 parts, which is almost whitish in the centre. * * * The other 

 two * * * are more uniformly yellowish brown on the lower 

 surface." Granvik suggests that there may be sexual dimorphism, 

 the females paler than the males. This is not borne out by the 

 material studied in the present connection. 



The males have wing lengths of 71-79; tails, 86-94; culmen from 

 the base, 18-20; tarsus, 28-29.5 mm. The female — wing, 74; tail, 

 92.5; culmen, 18; tarsus, 29.5 mm. One of the males (taken August 

 28) was in molt when shot. 



This warbler inhabits bushy places, both swampy and scrub. 



SPILOPTILA RUFIFRONS RUFIFRONS (Ruppell) 



Prima rniifrons Ruppell, Neue Wirbelthiere, zu der Fauna Abyssinien gehorig 



etc., Vogel, p. 110, pi. 41, fig. 2, 1840: Abyssinian coastlands. 

 Specimens collected: 1 male, Sadi Malka, Ethiopia, January 29, 1912. 



Sclater *'* puts this species in the genus Apalis, a course for which 

 I can see no reason. It is much closer structurally to Spiloptila cla- 

 nians than to any other African warbler. Through the courtesy of 

 Dr. Frank M. Chapman, I have been able to compare ruflfrons with 

 cta?)ians, and I consider them to be clearly congeneric. I am not the 

 first to put ruflfrons in the genus Spiloptila; Madarasz ^^ described 

 races of this bird as Spiloptila danahilensis and S. reichenoivi. 

 Either this bird is a /Spiloptila, or Spiloptila can not be maintained as 

 a genus. The South African Priniops appears to be a valid genus. 



"Nov. Zool.. vol. 29, p. 206, 1922. 



" Systema Avium .F.thiopicarura, pt. 2, pp. 527-528, 1930. 



" Ann. Mus. Hungar., vol. 13, p. 300, 1915 ; and Orn. Monatsb., vol. 12, p. 179, 1904. 



