216 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



August 23-26, 30 seen; east of Ithanga Hills, August 26, 10 birds; 

 Bowlder Hill, 20 miles above the mouth of the Thika River, August 

 27, 20 noted; Thika River, west of Ithanga Hills, August 28, 10 

 })irds ; between the Thika and Athi Rivers, August 29, 30 seen ; Athi 

 River near Juja Farm, August 30-31, 75 ; Athi River Station, Uganda 

 Railway, September 1, 20 birds noted. 



PRINIA SOMALICA ERLANGERI Reichenow 



Prinia somalica erlangeri Rmchenow, Orn. Monatsb., vol. 13, p. 24, 1905 : Gurra 



country, southern Somaliland. 

 Specimens collected: 



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



3 females, Nyero Mountains, Indunumara Mountains, Kenya Colony, July 



13-17, 1912. 

 1 female, Marsabit Road, 25 miles north of Northern Guaso Nyiro River, 

 Kenya Colony, July 30, 1912. 



This pale-colored longtail occurs across northern Kenya Colony 

 from southern Italian Somaliland on the east to southw^estern 

 Ethiopia and to Turkanaland, northeastern Uganda, on the west, 

 according to Sclater,^° who gives merely the above region as its range, 

 but van Someren ®^ obtained specimens at Tsavo and Campi-ya-bibi. 

 He says that he — 



* * * was surprised to find this bird in the Serengeti Plains east of Kili- 

 manjaro and then again in the region of the Turkwell River, west of Lake 

 Rudolf. I can see no difference between these birds, nor * * * any charac- 

 ter for separating them from P. s. erlangeri from South Somaliland (N'gare- 

 lewin). * * * The range would be from East Kilimanjaro Plains to South 

 Ukambani, north to the Guasso N'yiro and Baringo district, also to Lake Rudolf 

 and Turkana. 



The typical race, which I have not seen, is said to be paler above. 

 It occurs in the lowlands of northern Somaliland from the Berbera 

 Plain to the Zeila-Djeldessa region. 



The present specimens are all in worn plumage ; one, taken on July 

 1, was molting the rectrices when shot. Their dimensions are as 

 follows: Wing, 47, 46, 46, 47, 43.5; tail, 54, 58, 51.5, 60, 56; culmen, 

 11.5, 11.5, 10.5, 12, 10.5; tarsus, 18.5, 19, 18.5, 19, 18 mm. (The speci- 

 mens are in the same order as in the above list. ) 



Sharpe *" puts this species in the genus Burnesia. Reichenow, 

 Sclater, and others do not recognize Burnesia as a valid genus. I 

 find that Prinia is a rather heterogeneous group, but inasmuch as 

 there are species that fill practically all the stages from the very 

 slender-billed lepida (type of Burnesia) to familians (type of 

 Prinia) and to hairdii (type of Herpystera), it is difficult to separate 



^ Systema avium ^thiopicarum, pt. 2, pp. 570-571, 1930. 



8' Nov. Zoo!., vol. 29, p. 219, 1922. 



** Hand-list of the genera and species of birds, vol. 4, p. 241, 1903. 



