392 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



SORELLA EMINIBEY Hartlaub 



Sorella eminibey Habtlaub, Journ. fiir Orn., ISSO, pp. 211, 235: Lado, Upper 

 Nile. 



SPECIMEN.S COLLECTED : 



1 adult male, Gato River near Gardiila, Ethiopia, April 26, 1912. 



1 adult male, Turturo, Ethiopia, June 16, 1912. 



2 adult males, 3 immature males, 4 adult females, Wobok, Ethiopia, 

 June 18, 1912. 



2 adult males, southeast Lake Stefanie, Kenya Colony, May 12, 1912. 

 2 immature males, Chaffa, Ethiopia, June 24-25, 1912. 

 1 immature male, Indunumara Mountains, Kenya Colony, July 16, 1912. 

 1 adult male, 1 immature male, 5 adult females, 35-25 miles north of 



Northern Guaso Nyiro River, Kenya Colony, July 30, 1912. 

 1 adult female, Northern Guaso Nyiro River, Kenya Colony, August 3, 



1912. 



Van Someren ^^ has separated the birds from the Northern Fron- 

 tier Province of Kenya Colony as S. e. guasso on the basis of their 

 paler coloration, lacking the deep tinge on the crown. If guasso be 

 a valid race the present series would have to be referred to it and 

 would constitute a northern extension of its range. However, I 

 have compared these birds with practically topotypical eminibey 

 and with others from Tanganyika Territory and can not find van 

 Someren's diagnosis to hold at all. There is no difference in color 

 between northwestern Ugandan and southern Sudanese birds and 

 those from southern Shoa and northern Kenya Colony. Conse- 

 quently, I do not recognize guasso as a valid race. Sclater ''- lists 

 it but considers it "doubtfully distinct." On the other hand 

 Hartert " considers it a recognizable form, and van Someren ''^ 

 obtained additional material and felt the characters of the race 

 were upheld. 



Until the present series was collected, there was only one record 

 for this bird in Ethiopia — a specimen collected by Antinori at 

 Daimbi in Shoa (Ada Galla area), published on by Salvadori.'^^ In 

 Kenya Colony the species has not been noted before from the area 

 between Marsabit and the Ethiopian boundary. 



The size variations of the adults collected are as follows : Males — 

 wing, 59-64 (average, 62.3) ; tail, 38-43 (40.5) ; culmen, 9-10 (9.5) ; 

 tarsus, 14.5-16 (15.1 mm). Females— wing, 58.5-62 (60.5); tail, 

 35-^2 (37.4) ; culmen, 9-10 (9.5) ; tarsus, 14-16 (15.3 mm). 



The specimens collected in April and June are mostly in abraded 

 plumage; those taken from July 30 to August 3 are in molt. 



■^ Bull. Brit. Orn. Club. vol. 43, p. 38, 1922. 



■^ Systems avium ^thiopicarum, pt. 2, p. 726, 1930. 



■'^Nov. Zool., vol. 34, p. 198, 1928. 



'* Journ. East Africa and Uganda Nat. Hist. Soc, no. 35, p. 60 (136), 1930. 



™Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, 1884, p. 175. 



