BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 309 



the chestnut on the breast. Van Someren considers this as a distinct 

 species with catharoxanthus as a race. Sclater -^ also inclines to con- 

 sider it as a full specific form. This may be, but catharoxanthus is 

 nearer to the jyoliocephalus group and is to be kept with that aggregate. 

 Several writers have claimed that schoanus and approximans were 

 not constantly different in size and that the two could not be main- 

 tained as subspecific entities. However, those writers who advocated 

 "lumping" the two made the mistake of assuming that birds from 

 extreme northern Kenj^a Colony were typical approximans, while, as 

 a matter of fact, they are really schoanus. Needless to say, there are 

 many intermediate birds in the northern half of Kenya Colony, but 

 this is just what one should expect. Lynes ^^ has found the same con- 

 dition in the Sudanese catharoxanthus, as his birds from western 

 Kordof an and Darf ur — 



♦ * * agree with specimens from the Bahr el Ghazal, Upper White and 

 Blue Niles, and it must also be said with a good many from the reputed ranges 

 of monteiri and polioceplialu^. It is dear that while the three races are distin- 

 guishable in the aggregate, there is much inconstancy in their distinctive char- 

 acteristics, even in the remoter parts of their respective ranges. If, as is 

 probable, the range of the species is continuous throughout the savanna belt, 

 there must in any case be intermediates. 



Sclater ^^ uses the name hypophyrrhus Ilartlaub for the southeast 

 African race. I have followed Neumann's evidence and conclusions ^^ 

 in calling this form hlanchoti. 



The East African gray-headed bush-shrike is a widely distributed, 

 but not abundant, bird. It is never found in numbers in any one 

 locality. 



The single specimen collected has the following measurements: 

 Wing, 97; tail, 112; culmen, 28.5; tarsus, 34.5 mm. It is in fairly 

 fresh plumage. 



MALACONOTUS POLIOCEPHALUS SCHOANUS Neumann 



Malaconottis poliocephalus schoanus Neumann, Orn. Monatsb., 1903, p. 89; 



Hawash district, Ethiopia. 

 Specimens ooi^lected: 



1 unsexed, Errer, Ethiopia, September 1, 1911 (Onellard coll.). 



1 unsexed, Ourso, Ethiopia, September 11, 1911 (Onellard coll.)- 



1 adult male, 1 adult female, Gato River near Gardula, Ethiopia, April 

 11-14, 1912. 



1 adult male, Endoto Mountains, south, Kenya Colony, July 24, 1912. 



The range and characters of schoanus have been dealt with in the 

 discussion of approximans and need not be repeated here. Inasmuch 

 as this race is based on size, the measurements are recorded in table 60. 



^ In Shelley, The birds of Africa, vol. 5, pt. 2, p. 414, 1912. 

 " Ibis, 1925, p. 75. 



=* Systema avium -Ethiopicarum, pt. 2, p. 636, 1930. 

 2» Orn. Monatsb., vol. 11, pp. 87-91, 1903. 

 106220 — 37 21 



