BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 285 



This bird lives in open woods, not in the very dense forests, and is 

 common in most parts of its range. In the southern part of Kenya 

 Colony the breeding season is in December and January. Van 

 Someren ^^ found a nest in the forest at Kikuyu in December. It was 

 composed of rootlets and fibers, decorated externally with bits of 

 lichen and cobwebs. The eggs are said to be grayish white, spotted 

 and streaked with brownish gray. 



DRYOSCOPUS GAMBENSIS ERYTHREAE Neumann 



Dryoscopus malzacii erythreae Neumann, Journ. fiir Oru., 1899, p. 413 : Salamoua. 



Specimens collected : 



1 male, Aletta, Ethiopia, Marcli 10, 1912. 

 1 male, 1 female, Gidabo River, Ethiopia, March 16, 1912. 

 1 immature male, Sagon River, Ethiopia, June 3, 1912. 

 1 female, Bodessa, Ethiopia, May 31, 1912. 



Soft parts (inmiature male) : Iris grayish brown, bill olivaceous- 

 black, paler on basal half below ; feet plumbeous, claws grayish black. 



I have not sufficient material to attempt a revision of the races of 

 this bush-shrike, but as far as it goes the series available supports the 

 validity of the currently recognized forms gambensis, malzacii, 

 nyanzae, erythreae, and erwini. Of the other two, sextus and congicus, 

 I have seen no specimens and therefore accept the latter because of the 

 fact that all workers who have studied it have pronounced it valid, 

 and the former because of the high degree of probability that the bird 

 of the grasslands of "Neukamerun" is different from that of Adamaua. 

 The subspecific characters of all the races are shown only by the 

 females ; the males of all are practically indistinguishable. The races 

 are, then, as follows : 



1. D. g. gambensis: Senegal to Northern Nigeria and to Lake Chad 

 and Adamaua, intergrading with malzacii in the Darfur region.^^ 

 Female with back ashy earth brown, the top of head noticeably 

 darker — da^ ashy gray. 



2. D. g. sextus: The grasslands of "Neukamerun," that is, the 

 extreme eastern part of Cameroon (south of Adamaua, and east of 

 the high Cameroonian Plateau and northeast of the forest area). 



3. D. g. congicus: Portuguese Congo to Gaboon. Female with the 

 top of the head darker than in gambensis; underparts, especially the 

 breast, more strongly washed with rufous-tawny. 



4. D. g. erwini: Eastern Ituri district of the Belgian Congo south 

 to the forests west of Lake Tanganyika ; the Kivu Volcanoes, Euwen- 

 zori, southwestern Uganda, Urundi, Ruanda, and the Bukoba district 

 of northwestern Tanganyika Territory. Female similar to gambensis 



^Ibis, 1916, p. 394. 



''Cf. Lynes, Ibis, 1925, p. 76. 



