BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 271 



The nomenclature of two of these is somewhat confusing, as it has 

 resulted in an unfortunate and erroneous transposition of names that 

 renders the literature somewhat difficult. 



Prevost and des Murs *^ described Lanius excuhitorius from "Nubia 

 and Abyssinia." In 1905 Neumann described intercedens from the 

 Hawash region under the assumption that birds from the Wliite Nile 

 were typical excuhitorius. However, in 1912 Sclater ^^ claimed that 

 Abyssinia was the type locality of excuhitorius and that consequently 

 intercedens was a pure synonym of that name, and he described the 

 White Nile birds as a distinct race, princeps Cabanis. All workers on 

 African birds followed Sclater until very recently, when Neumann *' 

 once more investigated the systematics, and this time the nomen- 

 clature, of this shrike. He notes that Sclater's citation of the type 

 locality of excuhitorius as "Abyssinia" is only partly correct, and 

 says: 



* * * as Prevost et des Murs did not describe it from "Abyssinia" but 

 from "Nubia and Abyssinia," adding, that the types were not collected by 

 Lefebvre, but sent to the Paris Museum by Mons. d'Arnaud. Now, everyone 

 who has studied the history of the ornithological exploration of Africa knows 

 that d'Arnaud never collected in what is now called Abyssinia, but only on the 

 White Nile. He was one of three French elephant-hunters and ivory-traders — 

 d'Arnaud, de Malzac, and Burn-Rollet, who often went up the White Nile * ♦ * 

 collecting zoological specimens. * ♦ * in fact, the province where d'Arnaud 

 and Werne, who sent the type of L. princeps to the Berlin Museum, collected is 

 practically the same, and the types of L. excuhitorius and L. princeps might 

 have been shot on the same tree. There is no race of L. excuhitorius in northern 

 Abyssinia and the Blue Nile region. * * * Riippell did not know the bird 

 at all, and Heuglin mentions the species only from the eastern Sudan. It was 

 not till Antinori founded the Italian zoological station of Let Marefla near 

 Ankober in the Hawash region in 1882 that a race of L. excuhitorius was found 

 there and that is * * * L. e. intercedens. 



It therefore follows that princeps is a synonym of excuhitorius, 

 while the Ethiopian and west Kenyan records of excuhitorius really 

 refer to intercedens. 



The subspecies of this shrike are outlined as follows : 



1. L. e. excuhitorius: The Upper White Nile, Lado Enclave, and 

 Bahr el Ghazal districts of the Sudan west to Darfur, and south to 

 Uganda and the eastern Ituri district of the Belgian Congo (Kuwen- 

 zori) ; migrates in great numbers to Kenya Colony, especially to the 

 Rift Valley (Lakes Nakuru and Naivasha), where, however, it does 

 not breed. This race is rather small (wings, 105-115 mm). 



2. L. e. intercedens: Ethiopia from the Hawash region and Ankober 

 south through Shoa to the Omo district and through northwestern 

 Uganda to the Elgon and Kavirondo countries in Kenya Colony. 



"/n Lefebvre, Voyage en Abyssinia, etc., pt. 4, pp. 99, 170, pi. 8, 1850. 

 " In Shelley, The birds of Africa, vol. 5, p. 265, 1912. 

 *3Ibis, 1927, pp. 506-508. 



