BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 211 



I have not enough material to attempt a revision of the forms of 

 this scrub warbler and therefore adhere to the arrangement adopted 

 by Sclater. It seems not improbable, however, that turkana van 

 Someren may prove to be a valid form and not a synonym of STnithii. 



The typical race inhabits the Red Sea Province of the Sudan, 

 south to the Danakil coastal area of Eritrea, and to the Hawash 

 Valley of Ethiopia, and west to Darfur. S. r. smitMi is found in 

 British and Italian Somaliland, Jubaland, Ennia Gallaland, and the 

 Rendile country of northern Kenya Colony, to northwestern Uganda 

 (where the birds van Someren named turhana occur), intergrading 

 in the region of Chanlers Falls on the Northern Guaso Nyiro River 

 with the southernmost race, rvfidorsalis. The latter occurs in the 

 arid scrub country of Kenya Colony from the Tana River south to 

 the Sotik, Teita, and Taveta districts and to the Litema Mountains, 

 Tanganyika Territory. The race smitMi differs from the nominate 

 one in having the rufous extending back on to the occiput and in 

 having broader white tips to the rectrices; imfldorsalis is more 

 riifescent on the back than either and has the rufous on the head 

 restricted to the anterior portion as in rwfhfrons. 



Sclater considers reichenoini Madarasz a synonym of smithii, but 

 it really is the same as rufidorsaUs, of which race it forms the south- 

 ernmost record. Sclater assumes that the Litema Mountains are the 

 Settima Mountains of Kenya Colony, but Reichenow ^^ shows them 

 to be a range south of Kilimanjaro. 



Erlanger®^ found this bird quite abundantly in northern Somali- 

 land, where he found it breeding. The local form there is smithii. 



In Darfur, Lynes ®^ found the typical race only in the "low sterile 

 hills, sparsely grown with acacia-scrub and poor grass * * * in 

 fact, much the same type of habitat as SpiloptUa, but in the hills." 

 (He puts the bird in the genus Apalis.) It appears to breed there 

 in summer. 



SPILOPTILA RUFIFRONS SMITHII (Sharpe) 



Driiodromas smithii Shakpe, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, vol. 4, p. 29, 1895: Shebelli 



River. 

 S^rECiMENs collected: 



1 female, 18 miles southwest of Hor, Kenya Colony, July 1, 1912. 



S males, 4 females, Indunumara Mountains, Kenya Colony, July 14-16, 1912. 



1 male, Malele, Kenya Colony, July 27, 1912. 



The characters and distribution of this form have already been 

 discussed. 



^ Die Vogel Afrikas, Atlas, map c, 1905. 

 " Journ. fiir Orn., 1905, p. 726. 

 <^ Ibis, 1925, p. 97. 



