292 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



3 males, 3 females, Bodessa, Ethiopia, May 21-31, 1912. 

 1 male, Sagon River, Ethiopia, June 3, 1912. 

 1 female, Tertale, Ethiopia, June 10, 1912. 

 1 female, Turturo, Ethiopia, June 15, 1912. 



Soft parts: Iris bluish gray; bill wholly black; feet pale gray, 

 claws black. 



The specimens from Dire Daoua, Gada Bourca, Duletcha, and the 

 Hawash River are not typical examples of erlangeri but are some- 

 what intermediate between it and hdbyssinicus. The subspecies of 

 this bush-shrike are exceedingly difficult to make out, for not only 

 are the differences between many of them very slight, but also a 

 worn plumage of a darker form may be practically indistinguish- 

 able from a fresher example of a paler race, and in many cases the 

 individual variation is so great that, without enormous series, it be- 

 comes impossible to differentiate racial aggregates. The forms of 

 northeastern Africa are more distinct than most of the others. Inas- 

 much as many of the forms are so poorly defined, it is not surprising 

 that the results arrived at by the investigators who have attempted re- 

 visions of this species are far from uniform. Neumann ^ recognized 

 13 races, 5 of them new at that point. The next reviewer, Zedlitz,^ 

 admits all these and another described in the meanwhile. Sclater ^ 

 considers all the West African forms as a single race and casts doubt 

 on the validity of those found in the eastern, part of the continent. 

 Hartert ^ considers the birds of all of Africa except the northeastern 

 part as typical senegalus^ as does also Reichenow ^ and also Sclater 

 and Mackworth-Praed.*' 



Van Someren ^ lists four races from tropical East Africa, and 

 Grote ^ finds three valid races in Cameroon. All in all, some 24 names 

 have been proposed for as many races of this shrike, and while I 

 have not seen enough material of all of them, the following notes may 

 be of use to future workers. First of all, we may list the names : 



1. Lanius senegalus Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 12, p. 137, 1766: Senegal. 



2. Lanius erythropterus Shaw, General zoology, vol. 7, p. 301, 1800: "Senegal" 



( = South Africa). 



3. Lanius coronatus Vieiixot, Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat., vol. 26, p. 140, 1818: No 



locality. 



4. Lanius senegalus var. habyssinica Hemprich and Ehbenbekg, Symbolae 



physicae, vol. 1, fol. e, 1828 : Abyssinian coastlands. 



1 Journ. fiir Orn., 1907, pp. 371-379. 



" Journ. fiir Orn., 1915, pp. 54-.55. 



' In Shelly, The Birds of Africa, vol. 5, pp. 36.3-3G4, 1912. 



* Die Vogel der palUarktischen Fauna, vol. 1. pp. 452-453, 1907. 



6 Die Vogel Af rilcas. vol. 2, pp. 548-549, 1903. 



6 His, 1918, p. 038. 



7 Nov. Zool., vol. 29, pp. 111-113, 1922. 



8 Jour, fur Orn., 1024, p. 508. 



