BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 345 



opia, Sudan, and northern Kenya Colony) to have wings of 119-125 

 mm, as against 118-127 mm in southern males. 



Bowen " shot a breeding female in the Ikoma region of Tangan- 

 yika Territory on July 3, while van Someren ^* obtained a young bird 

 in April in Kenya Colony or Uganda. It seems, from all these data, 

 that the breeding season is a fairly prolonged one. 



The great abundance of this starling is indicated by the fact that 

 Mearns recorded from 5 to 1,000 of them daily between Aletta, 

 Ethiopia, March 7, and Athi River, Kenya Colony, August 30. 



Oberholser ^^ has recently created a genus Painterius for this spe- 

 cies, but I do not consider its characters distinct enough to warrant 

 recognition. 



BUPHAGUS ERYTHRORYNCHUS ERYTHRORYNCHUS (Stanley) 



Tanagra erythrormchu Stanley, in Salt, Travels in Abyssinia, Appendix, p. 59, 



1814: Abyssinia. 

 Specimens collected: 



1 adult male, 1 immature male. Dire Daoua, Ethiopia, December 4-10, 1911. 



2 adult males, 2 adult females, Gato River near Gardula, Ethiopia, April 

 9-19, 1912. 



Grote 2^ has separated the birds of southern Africa, north to south- 

 ern Tanganyika Territory, as B. e. cafer, the characters being larger 

 size and much darker coloration than in the nominate form. Sclater ^^ 

 calls birds from as far north as Kenya Colony, Uganda, and the 

 Mongalla province of the Sudan cafer, although Grote writes that 

 the birds of the Lake Victoria region, etc., are intermediates between 

 the two races. I have not enough southern material to investigate 

 this matter, and therefore follow Sclater's list. 



Grote gives the wing dimensions of Ethiopian birds as 105 to 114 

 mm. The present series vary in this measurement from 110 to 116 

 mm, and are thus fairly large examples. This may be due to the 

 fact that they come from southern Ethiopia and approach the 

 northern somewhat intermediate caffer type. 



The immature bird is generally similar to the adults in plumage 

 but has the head, throat, and breast much darker, about olive-brown, 

 and has the bill dark brown (in dried skin) instead of reddish 

 yellow. 



The bird shot on December 4 is in a molting condition ; the others 

 are not obviously in molt but are in rather worn plumage. A mated 

 pair was shot on April 19 at Gato River. 



23Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, vol. S3, p. 69, 1931. 



" Ibis, 1916, pp. 400-401. 



25 Sci. Publ. Cleveland Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 1, no. 3, p. 81, 1930. 



'^ Orn. Monatsb., vol. 35, p. 13, 1927. 



^ Systema avium .SLthiopicarum, pt. 2, p. 671, 1930. 



