404 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



5 adult males, 5 adult females, Tertale, Ethiopia, Juue 8, 1912. 



2 adult males, 10 miles southeast Lake Rudolf, Kenya Colony, July 12, 1912. 



3 adult females, Endoto Mountains, south, Kenya Colony, July 22, 1912. 

 1 adult male, 18 miles south of Malele, Kenya Colony, July 29, 1912. 



1 adult female, junction of Tana and Thika Rivers, Kenya Colony, August 

 24, 1912. 



Soft parts: Male — iris orange, bill all black, feet and claws pale 

 brown. Female — iris brown ; bill with maxilla dusky olive, mandible 

 horn color, feet and claws pale brown. Innnature — iris dark brown, 

 bill dusky olive above, flesh color below, feet pale grayish brown, 

 claws light brown. 



I have seen no specimens of typical viteUinus or of reichardi and 

 follow Sclater ^ in considering the present specimens all uluensis. 

 Neumann separated uluensis from the nominate form on the basis of 

 the black forehead area being broader in the former. Van Someren ^^ 

 writes that this character is not particularly useful as a criterion, but 

 that uluensis has the mantle much darker, more greenish, and more 

 striped and the underparts deeper yellow. 



Several writers have suggested that Hyphantornis lineolatus Shel- 

 ley is a synonym of P. v. uluensis. I have not sufficient material seri- 

 ously to question this conclusion, but it is not impossible' that lineo- 

 latus may prove to be a recognizable race after all. Two adult males 

 in nuptial plumage collected by Donaldson Smith at Darar and Luku 

 are paler, less orange yellow on the abdomen, sides, flanks, and under 

 tail coverts than the present Shoan examples in comparable plumage. 

 The former two birds are somewhat less streaked on the upper back 

 than uluensis. 



A puzzling and not at all confirmatory observation is that of van 

 Someren,^^ who finds that males from the Northern Frontier Province 

 of Kenya Colony and from Jubaland differ from topotypical uluensis 

 in having the chestnut of the crown less extensive caudally, there 

 being a bright yellow hind neck band, and in having brighter yellow 

 underparts. He writes that the females "differ more markedly, being 

 brownish olive on the mantle, not olive-green." To this last state- 

 ment I may take exception, as both color phases are exhibited in the 

 present series. I have seen two birds from southern Kenya Colony 

 and find that the difference in the males is not constant. 



The males collected at Gato River, April 21-May 6, are in breed- 

 ing plumage ; those taken at Tertale, June 8, and in Kenya Colony in 

 July, are all in winter dress. Their size variations are as follows: 

 Wing, 67-74 (average, 71) ; tail, 45.5-50 (48.6) ; culmen, 14-16 (14.8) ; 

 tarsus, 19-22 (20.4 mm). The females vary as follows : Wing, 66-70.5 



• Systema avium ^thloplcaruin, pt. 2, p. 741, 1930. 



10 Nov. Zool., vol. 29, p. 142, 1922. 



"Journ. East Africa and Uganda Nat. Hist. Soc, no. 35, p. 57 (133), 1930. 



