370 



BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



The dimensions of the present series are shown in table 72. 



The female from the Tana River is in a molting condition, espe- 

 cially in the tail; the other specimens are in rather worn plumage. 



In his original description of frichi Mearns compared it with 

 ''^Zosterops senegalensis stuhlmannV His series of the latter are all 

 Z. s. flavilateralis, all from the Taveta area. 



Table 72. — Measurements of six specimens of Zosterops senegalensis fricki from 



Kenya Colony 



ZOSTEROPS SENEGALENSIS JUBAENSIS Erlanger 



Zosterops juhaensls Erlangee, Oni. Monatsb., vol. 9, p. 182, 1901: Damasso, 

 Lower Juba River. 



Specimens collected: 1 female, Bodessa, Ethiopia, May 20, 1912. 



The single specimen obtained is in very worn plumage. 



I have not sufficient material to attempt a study of the northeast 

 African forms of the yellow white-eye. According to Sclater,^ two 

 races occur in Ethiopia — aurifrons in the northern part (south to 

 Lake Tsana) and in Eritrea and Sennar and juhaensis in eastern and 

 southern Ethiopia, west to the Omo Valley and Lake Stef anie, and 

 also in Somaliland and Jubaland. 



In Kenya Colony the racial problem is more complicated. I have 

 not enough material (53 specimens seen) to be certain of all points, 

 but it seems that Sclater is wrong in considering fricki a synonym 

 of flavilateralis. Z. rria^saica van Someren is a synonym of flavilater- 

 alis^ but it may possibly be that coastal birds are different. Van 

 Someren described massaica from Sagala, Teita, and Tsavo, appar- 

 ently under the impression that coastal birds were true flavilateralis^ 

 but inasmuch as the type of the latter came from Ndi in the Teita 

 district, massaica must be relegated to the status of a synonym. Van 

 Someren considered birds from Witu, Lamu, and Manda as being 

 typical flavilateralis. A specimen from Lamu, in the collection of 

 the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, is not typical 

 flavilateralis but is intermediate between fricki and juhaensis. Three 

 birds from Mombasa, in the Carnegie Museum, are more greenish, 



» Systema avium .Sithiopicarum, pt. 2, pp. 672-673, 1930. 



