BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 307 



Mount Elgon at 6,500 feet, and Kijabe, Molo, Elgeyu, Chepalunga 

 Forest, Sotik, Kericho, Mbarara, Kegezi, Maraquet, and Kakamega in 

 Kenya Colony. It seems not to occur in Uganda, the country being 

 too low, but reappears in the Kivu district. Nor does it reach as far 

 northeast as Mount Kenya, and I know of no records from 

 Ruwenzori. 



Van Someren notes that the Kivu birds may prove to be separable 

 on the basis of larger size and deeper red on the throat and forehead. 

 This would not be surprising, as the two groups are geographically 

 isolated, all of Uganda intervening between them. Granvik's sug- 

 gestion -^ that the Elgon birds may be separable from those of the 

 Kikuyu Escarpment is, as he himself admits, quite improbable. 



The present specimen is molting in the tail but is otherwise in good 

 plumage. Its dimensions are as follows: Wing, 80; tail, 73; cuhnen, 

 17 ; tarsus, 29.5 mm. 



Nothing is known of the habits of this bird other than that it is 

 entirely restricted to dense bushes and thickets in fairly high 

 altitudes. 



MALACONOTUS POLIOCEPHALUS APPROXIMANS (Cabanis) 



Archolestes approximans Cabanis, in von der Decken, Reiseu in Ost-Africa in 

 1859-61, etc., vol. 3, p. 27, 1869: Dalaon River, Usambara, Tanganyika 

 Territory. 



Specimens collected: 1 adult unsexed, Tana River, 1,200 feet, Kenya Colony, 

 August 15, 1912. 



Soft parts : Iris yellow ; bill brownish black shading to horn color 

 on the sides and below ; feet and claws pale bluish gray. 



The systematics of this bush-shrike have been investigated by 

 Neumann,22 ^nd, as the limited material available to me substantiates 

 his conclusions, I assume that his work is correct in regard to some 

 of the other races which I have not seen. He recognizes six forms 

 of MalaconottLS poUocephahis^ to which a seventh, interpositus, has 

 been added subsequently by Hartert.-^ Other workers, especially 

 Zedlitz and van Someren, have since added to our knowledge of the 

 distribution of these forms, not, in all cases, with harmonious results, 

 and the following summary represents the present consensus of 

 opinion : 



1. M. p. poUocephdlus : Western Africa from Senegal to Cameroon. 

 This race has the underparts uniform sulphur-yellow with a rather 

 faint, indistinct chestnut patch on the breast ; wings, 122 mm. 



2. M. p. catharoxanth'm : The eastern Sudan from Darfur and 

 Kordofan to the Bahr el Ghazel (south to the Niam-niam country) 



ziJourn. fur Orn., 1923, Sonderheft. pp. 136-137. 



22 Journ. fur Orn., 1905, pp. 225-227. 



23 Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, vol. 29, p. 36, 1911. 



