364 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Tlie two adult males are in fresh plumage as is one of the females ; 

 the other female is in molt. All the young males are molting into 

 adult plumage. 



Birds in breeding condition have been taken in June. 



Besides the specimens collected, Mearns noted this sunbird as fol- 

 lows: Tharaka district, August 13-14, 30 seen; Tana River, August 

 15-23, 250; junction of Tana and Thika Rivers, August 23-26, 20 

 seen; Bowlder Hill, August 27, 10 birds; west of Ithanga Hills, 

 August 28, 10 seen, between Thika and Athi River, August 29, 2 

 birds ; Athi River, August 30, 6 birds seen. 



CHALCOMITRA HUNTERI (Shelley) 



Vinnyris hunteri Sheilley, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1889, p. 865, pi. 41, fig. 2: 



Useri River, base of Kilimanjaro. 

 Specimens coixected: 



1 adult male, 1 immature female, Turturo, Ethiopia, June 16, 1912. 



1 immature male, 25 miles southeast of Lake Rudolf, Kenya Colony, July 



12, 1912. 

 1 adult male, Indunumara Mountains, Kenya Colony, July 14, 1912. 

 1 adult male, 1 immature male, near Endoto Mountains, Kenya Colony, 



July 19, 1912. 

 1 adult female, 18 miles south of Maleie, Kenya Colony, July 28, 1912. 

 1 adult male, 24 miles south of Maleie, Kenya Colony, July 29, 1912. 

 1 adult male, 1 adult female, Lekiuudu River, Kenya Colony, August 5, 



1912. 



Hunter's sunbird occurs from the northeastern Tanganyika-Kenya 

 border (near Kilimanjaro) north through the Taveta and Teita dis- 

 tricts to northern Somaliland, west through Gallaland and extreme 

 southern Shoa to Turkanaland in northeastern Uganda. It is a 

 bird of the dry thornbush country. It is the geographical counter- 

 part of cruentata and may be really conspecific with that form. The 

 two differ in the color of the rump and upper tail coverts of the 

 adult male ; these parts are metallic purple in hunteri and dull black, 

 like the back, in cruentata. 



Van Someren ^^ writes that more material from northeastern 

 Uganda may reveal a distinct fonn there. He finds no difference 

 in males from there and from Kenya Colony and suggests that fe- 

 males may differ. I have seen no Turkwell material and can not 

 add any definite data, but it may be that hunteri has a northwestern 

 race, because the adult male from Turturo has the bright pectoral 

 area a little more orange, less deep scarlet-red, than in more southern 

 birds. Witherby,®^ however, records a male from El Dab, Somali- 

 land, that has the gorget orange instead of crimson ; "the other me- 

 tallic colours have altered, probably owing to the carbolic powder 



««Nov. Zool., vol. 29, p. 199, 1922. 

 «»Ibis, 1905, p. 511. 



