BIKDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 



313 



The present series are in fresher pknnage than the specimens of 

 the preceding race but, Avith two exceptions, are not very fresh at 

 that. Their dimensions are given in table 62 (adults only). 



Hiigert ^* suggests that Mlgerti may be a compound aggregate 

 containing two races, a northern Somali form and the typical hil- 

 gerti group, the former being noticeably paler above. As Zedlitz '^ 

 has shown, however, age, wear, and season can account for the appar- 

 ent differences noted by Hiigert. 



Table 62. — Measurements of seven specimens of Rhodoplioneus cruentus hilgerti 



This race appears to have a wider altitudinal range than the typical 

 form. Lort Phillips ^^' "found this * * * shrike plentiful from 

 the Berbera Plains up to about 8,000 feet on Wagga Mountain." 



Erlanger ^^ found a nest on May 26 at Gobele in Ennia-Gallaland. 

 It contained three eggs, pale green in color, spotted with earth brown, 

 and measuring 24 by 18 mm. The nest was a rather flimsy, flat plat- 

 form, something like a dove's nest, and was built in a thick bush. 

 The breeding season is apparently more extensive than this one nest 

 record would indicate, as on January 8, in Arussi-Gallaland, Erlanger 

 saw a pair of these shrikes with newly fledged young. 



Mearns shot what he assumed to be a mated pair at Tertale on June 

 11, while on May 25 at Bodessa, he killed an adult female and a young 

 bird with the same shot and entered the latter in his notes as possibly 

 the progeny of the adult. 



As the Juvenal plumage of this bird appears not to have been 

 described, the following notes may be worth recording: The young 

 bird from Lekiundu River is a juvenal bird with the tail only three- 

 quarters grown. It resembles the adult on the upperparts, even to 

 the possession of the pinkish-red rump patch but is grayer generally 

 and differs in having the remiges and their greater coverts edged with 



**Katalog der Collection von Erlanger in Nieder-Ingellieim, p. 270, footnote, 1908. 



»5Journ. fiir Orn., 1915, pp. 57-58. 



» Ibis, 1898, p. 405. 



"'Journ. fur Orn., 1905, pp. 695-696. 



