BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 277 



and Sagon River as his available material. However, out of some 

 36 specimens from southern Shoa examined by me, 24 have well- 

 developed white spots, 6 have these spots faintly developed, and 

 only 6 lack them entirely. Furthermore, not a few birds from 

 southern Kenya Colony (which are undoubtedly typical funehris) 

 are without any white rump spots. Van Someren®° has examined 

 "the type and cotype of L. rothschildi, and considers that they are 

 not separable. The characters given by Neumann are not exhibited 

 in the specimens. * * * One has lost all its rump feathers, and 

 they are specimens which have been mounted and sadly maltreated." 



2. L. f. atrocoeruleus : Northern Somaliland west into northeast- 

 ern Ethiopia east of the eastern Ethiopian Escarpment. Similar 

 in size to funehris but distinctly paler in color. 



3. L. f. degener: Southern Somaliland south through the Tarn 

 Desert to northeastern Tanganyika Territory (the plains east of 

 Kilimanjaro south to Dodoma). Intermediate in color between 

 funehris and atrocoeruleus^ nearer to the latter, but smaller than 

 either; wings, in the males, 79-86 mm; in the females, 77-83 mm. 

 Of this form, the following is a synonym : Laniarius funehris lugu- 

 bris (Cabanis) Hilgert.^^ This name is based on the assumption that 

 Rhynchastatus Juguhris Cabanis ^^ was founded on a small pale bird 

 like degener. Though it is true that the original description states 

 that lugubris is smaller than funehris^ it is also said to be deep 

 blackish like the latter. Furthermore, the type has no data other 

 than "East Africa," and it is known that the collector. Baron von der 

 Decken, traveled throughout country inhabited by at least two of 

 the subspecies. Hence, it appears that the name is not wholly iden- 

 tifiable, and as such it may best be left as a synonym of the dark 

 typical race. Reichenow states that Hilgert was wrong in his use 

 of the name lugiitris^ as the type is a really dark bird. 



The size variations of the typical race may be judged from table 

 54 (adults only). 



The young birds have grayish-brown edges on the upper wing 

 coverts and have the middle of the belly pale grayish buff narrowly 

 barred with dark grayish black. Otherwise, they are generally sim- 

 ilar to adults but are duller on the throat, head, and upperparts. 



This somber-hued bush shrike is a common and widespread deni- 

 zen of the dry acacia savannahs and thorny tangles of tropical 

 eastern Africa. Like its crimson-breasted relative L. erythrog aster ^ 

 it usually goes about in pairs and has a loud, clear, whistled note. 



60 Nov. Zool., vol. 29, p. 117, 1922. 



•' Katalog der Collection von Erlanger in Nieder-Ingelheim, p. 272, 1908. 

 s='Journ. fiir Orn., 1868, p. 412. 

 106220—37 19 



