266 BULLETIN 153, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Neumann '^ described a southwestern race, mauritii, based on a 

 single specimen from Karoli Mountains, southeast of Lake Rudolf 

 (not western Somaliland as often stated). This form is said to 

 diflfer from typical soTnalicus in having the black of the head and 

 mantle sharply demarcated from the gray of the back ; in having the 

 axillars grayish, not black; and in having the rump and upper tail 

 coverts pure white. Neumann assumed that the specimens taken by 

 Donaldson Smith at Lake Stefanie and Gorili probably belonged to 

 this race. Sclater ^° examined the Gorili specimen and was unable 

 to distinguish it from typical Somaliland birds. The next author to 

 deal with this shrike was Zedlitz,^^ who recognized the two races. 

 Hartert ^^ writes of the type of mauritii that "it was daring to de- 

 scribe this form from one specimen, and it is desirable to have a 

 series to confirm its validity, but the differences pointed out by Neu- 

 mann are obvious, so that the new subspecies appears to be very 

 distinct." Van Someren ^^ obtained specimens from Meuressi on the 

 upper part of the Turkwell River and found them to agree exactly 

 with Neumann's type, "except that the black of the head is not 

 sharply differentiated from the grey of the mantle. The general 

 coloration is like F. somalictis^ but in this form the rump and upper 

 tail coverts are white and the under wing-coverts dark ashy grey, 

 not jet black. My specimens are in full clean plumage." 



I have seen no material of mauritii and therefore do not care to 

 synonymize it with soTnalicus^ although the present series of the lat- 

 ter suggests that the characters of mauritii are sexual. Van Some- 

 ren's skins were made by native collectors, and their sexing may be 

 therefore occasionally none too reliable. Of the present five birds 

 sexed by Doctor Mearns, the axillars are jet black in the two males, 

 brownish ashy gray in the three females. The black of the head 

 and mantle is more sharply defined in the two males than in the 

 three females. Inasmuch as van Someren's birds had grayish axillars 

 and had the black of the mantle not very abruptly defined, I suggest 

 that his birds were females. The character of the color of the 

 rump and upper tail coverts, as far as I can judge by the present 

 series, depends upon feather wear. The rump is practically pure 

 white in sovfialicus as in mauritii^ but the upper tail coverts in the 

 former are pale dull gray. When fresh, however, these feathers are 

 laterally and terminally margined with white, and since their median 

 grayish areas are hidden by the overlying, more anterior feathers, 

 they may on casual inspection appear to be white. If mauritii has 



a» Journ. fur Orn., 1907, p. 595. 



»» In SheUey, The birds of Africa, vol. 5, p. 260, 1912. 



" Journ. fiir Orn., 1915, p. 67. 



« Nov. Zool., vol. 27, p. 452, 1920. 



* Nov. Zool., vol. 29. p. 122. 1922. 



