222 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



can not decide on the merits of orientale, but its characters do nol 

 appear to be well marked. Thus, van Someren ^^ writes that "this 

 race is quite good, being considerably darker above and below and 

 possessing white under tail coverts, but its range is not definitely 

 known." He does not mention the supposedly main character, that 

 of the outermost rectrices, and I find that birds from South Africa, 

 West Africa, and Ethiopia have white under tail coverts, so this is 

 not a racial character. Until orientale is definitely shown to be non- 

 existent, I shall use a trinomial for the typical form. Van Someren 

 finds that his Ugandan birds are grayer on the breast than Senegalese 

 specimens and suggests that a sufficient series may show them to be 

 separable. Sclater and Mackworth-Praed ^^ also state that Uganda 

 birds are grayer above and on the breast, but Gyldenstolpe ^° finds 

 that is not the case, with the breast at least, in the material seen 

 by him. 



The present two specimens appear to be the first records for the 

 species in Ethiopia. Both are in very worn plumage, and have the 

 following dimensions: Wing, 70-71; tail, 62.5-65.5; culmen from 

 base, 13-14; tarsus, 17-18 mm. 



Pa/pisoma 'pulpuiTi Friedmann ^ is very similar to P. plvmibevmi 

 but has a much larger, more swollen bill and pale olive-green feet. 

 At the time of description I wrote that it might prove to be the 

 Portuguese Guinea race of plu^nbeum^ but this is not so, as typical 

 flimibeum has been taken in that country. It is possible that 

 fulfuin (the type of which is unique) may be a pathological form, 

 but the differences are well marked. 



Parhoma kolosj)odmm Bates ^ is not a Pariso77ia at all, but a 

 race of Muscicapa griseigularis. 



Genus BRADORNIS A. Smith 



Since Ogilvie-Grant's review of the forms of this puzzling group ^ 

 a number of races have been described, usually with insufficient clues 

 as to their relationship and based on such fine differences that it is 

 exceedingly difficult to determine specimens of this genus. Needless 

 to say, divergent opinions have been published on many of the forms, 

 so that the literature is almost as mystifying as the birds themselves. 

 In determining the specimens collected by the Frick expedition, I 



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



w Ibis, 1918, p. 705. 



•• Kongl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl., 1924, p. 197. 



^ Occ. Papers Boston See. Nat. Hist., vol. 5, p. 219, 1926 : Gunnal, Portuguese Guinea. 



2 Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, vol. 25, p. 27, 1909 : Bitye, Cameroon. 



•Ibis, 1913, pp. 632-637. 



