BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 401 



The dimensions of the present specimens are as follows: Males — 

 wing, 79-86; tail, 60-G5; culmen, 18-19; tarsus, 24-25 mm. 

 Females — wing, 79-82 ; tail, 67-60 ; culmen, 18-19 ; tarsus, 24-24.5 mm. 



This form of Emin's weaver occurs from eastern and central 

 Ethiopia west to northwestern Uganda. In central and southern 

 Uganda, and adjacent portions of the Ituri district, Belgian Congo, 

 another form, hudongoen^is van Someren, replaces it. In this race 

 the upper back of the male never becomes black in the breeding 

 plumage as in typical emini but remains olive-grayish-green striped 

 with fuscous. 



Erlanger ^ found nests with eggs in April and May at Harrar and 

 Cialanco. Zaphiro obtained a nest with eggs at Harrar on July 10. 

 Mearns noted this bird as living "in open plains with a few junipers 

 in which it nests." 



PLOCEUS LUTEOLUS LUTEOLUS (Lichtenstein) 



Figure 24 



FringiUa luteola Lichtenstein, Verzeichniss der Doubletten, etc., p. 23, 1823: 



Senegal. 

 Specimens collected : 



8 males, 4 females, Gato River near Garclula, Ethiopia, March 27-May 

 9, 1912. 



1 male, Reishat, north of Lake Rudolf, Kenya Colony, May 25, 1912. 



Soft parts : Iris yellowish brown ; bill plumbeous black ; feet bluish 

 gray, claws pale brown (bill and feet slightly paler in female than 

 in male). 



Sclater^ considers the birds of southern Ethiopia as kavirondensis 

 and not luteolus^ but van Someren ^ writes that Turkana birds "can- 

 not be separated from birds from South Ethiopia or the Nile, and 

 tliese latter agree with typical Senegal specimens," while kav- 

 irondensis is restricted to the country from the south of Mount 

 Elgon, along the Nandi Escarpment to south of Lake Victoria. The 

 latter form is darker above, more greenish, less yellowish, and 

 more decidedly streaked on the back and nape. The only birds I 

 have seen from the Uganda-Sudan border (Rhino Camp to Gondo- 

 koro) are in winter plumage and are therefore not comparable ma- 

 terial, but I follow van Someren in calling the present birds 

 luteolus. The males have bright yellow napes, not greenish as in 

 kavirondensis. Gyldenstolpe * suggests that the characters of the 

 latter form may be based on a partial retention of the winter plum- 

 age, but in this he seems to be mistaken. 



^ Journ. fiir Orn., 1907, pp. 5-6. 



' Systema avium ^thlopicarum, pt. 2, p. 737, 1930. 



sNov. Zool., vol. 29, p. 139, 1922. 



«Kongl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl., 1924, p. 30. 



