340 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



ONYCHOGNATHUS MORIO RUPPELLII (Verreanx) 



Amydrus ruppellii Veereaiix, in Chenu, EncyclopSdie d'histoire naturelle, 



Oiseaux, vol. 5, p. 166, 1856: Abyssinia. 

 Specimens collected: 



1 unsexed, Dire Daoua, Ethiopia, October 1911. 



1 male, Aletta, Sidamo, Ethiopia, March 10, 1912. 



The red-winged starling is a widely distributed bird over a good 

 part of the African Continent, The present race, characterized by 

 its large size, occurs in the highlands of Ethiopia, intergrading with 

 shelleyi in northern Kenya Colony. However, the species is uncom- 

 mon in northern Kenya Colony, as there are few suitable places for 

 it there (recorded from Moroto and West Rudolf). The birds live 

 about rocky cliffs, krantzes, and ravines, where they nest in holes in 

 the vertical walls. Apparently the species is not known from 

 southern Somaliland or Jubaland. 



The present race may occur in northern Somaliland, according to 

 Zedlitz,^ who records a specimen of uncertain subspecific identity 

 from there. 



The Dire Daoua bird is a female by plumage and is in worn condi- 

 tion, just starting to molt; the Aletta specimen is in fresh plumage. 

 It has a wing length of 161 mm. 



Erlanger ^ found a breeding colony at Burko, between Harrar and 

 Adis Abeba on April 28. He saw large numbers of these birds in 

 the Gara Mulata area near Harrar in March. 



Blanford ^ writes that "as a rule these birds kept to the highlands, 

 at about from 7,000 to 8,000 feet, but I shot one specimen in May as 

 low as Suru, barely 2,000 feet above the sea." 



Besides the specimens collected, Mearns saw 200 of these starlings 

 at Aletta, March 7-13; 10 at Loco, March 13-15, and 25 at Gato 

 River near Gardula, March 29-May 17. The last named locality is 

 fairly low, only 4,000 feet in altitude. 



ONYCHOGNATHUS TENUIROSTRIS (Ruppell) 



Lamprotornis tenuirostris Ruppell, Neue Wirbelthiere, zu der Fauna von 

 Abyssinien gehorig, etc., Vogel, p. 26, pi. 10, fig. 1, 1836: Abyssinia. 



Specimens collected: 5 males, 2 females, 1 unsexed, Arussi Plateau, Ethiopia, 

 February 23-27, 1912. 



The slender-billed chestnut-wing occurs in eastern Africa from the 

 Uhehe highlands of southwestern Tanganyika Territory north 

 through Kenya Colony and Ethiopia to Eritrea (Bogosland). In 

 the west the species extends as far as the Kivu Volcanoes and the 

 Ruwenzori Mountains. 



T Journ. fiir Orn., 1911, p. 91. 



» Journ. fur Orn., 1905, pp. 709-710. 



" Observations on the geology and zoology of Abyssinia, pp. 398-399, 1870. 



