BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 361 



CINNYRIS MEDIOCRIS MEDIOCRIS Shelley 



Cinnyris mediocris Shelley, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1885, p. 228 : Mount Kili- 

 manjaro, 12,000 feet. 



Specimens collected : 7 adult males, 2 adult females, 1 juvenal female. Escarp- 

 ment, 7,390 feet, Kenya Colony, September 5-10, 1912. 



I have examined the types and the paratypical series of keniensis 

 Mearns ^^ and of garguensis Mearns ^° and have come to the conclusion 

 that they are not separable from TnecUocris. Sclater^^ has reached 

 the same results. Four specimens from the Usambara Mountains, 

 Tanganyika Territory, are very similar to the present series, and I 

 am not convinced of the validity of usambancus Grote." In an 

 earlier paper ^^ Grote states that the Usambara birds are intermediate 

 between mediocins and fullehorni. The Kilimanjaro birds {medio- 

 cris) have the abdomen gi'ayer, the Nyasaland ones {filUehorni) 

 olive-green, and the Usambara birds yellowish. My examination of 

 the series of garguensis (said to be grayer below than either keniensis 

 or mediocris), of keniensis, and of mediocris inclines me to doubt the 

 validity of the Usambara form, I have seen no material of filUe- 

 horni but it seems to be generally accepted as a recognizable race. 



Van Someren '^* says that garguensis may be admitted as a good 

 form, characterized by its paler belly and the absence of a deep blue 

 breast-band. The type and two other adult males of garguensis 

 have, however, deep blue breast bands, although not so extensive ones 

 as in mediocris, and the ventral coloration varies greatly among 

 them. It may be that garguensis will prove to be a race based on 

 slight average characters, but for the present I consider it of doubt- 

 ful status. 



The alleged size difference between keniensis and mediocris is too 

 small to be of systematic significance. Thus, the present 7 adult 

 males have wings of from 53 to 55 mm in length; 9 similar birds 

 from Mount Kenya have wings ranging from 53 to 56.5 mm; 

 9 males from Mount Kilimanjaro have wing lengths of from 52 

 to 55.5 mm. 



Van Someren suggests that Mount Elgon birds may be slightly 

 different from those of the highlands farther east, but no western 

 material has been available to me for study. 



The range of mediocris is more extensive than Sclater's brief 

 statement indicates. It occurs from Kilimanjaro and the Usambara 

 Mountains in the southeast north to IMount Garguess and west to 

 Mount Elgon and the Subuffo Forest in Uganda. 



«9 Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 56, no. 14, p. 4, 1910 : Mount Kenya, 7,500 feet. 



"> Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 48, p. 387, 1915 : Mount Garguess, 7,100 feet. 



"^ Systema avium .(Ethiopicarum, pt. 2, p. 695, 1930. 



" Orn. Monatsb., 1922, p. 86 : Mlala, Usambara Mountains. 



'3 Journ. fur Orn., 1921, p. 134. 



" Nov. Zool., vol. 29, p. 198, 1922. 



