BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 429 



Delacoiir and Edmond-Blanc ^^^ have recently revised the forms 

 of this species with far more material for a basis than has been 

 available to me. The reader interested should consult their paper. 



COLIUSPASSER ALBONOTATUS EQUES (Hartlaub) 



Vidua egues Haetlaltb, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1863, p. 106, pi. 15: Kaseh, 



i. e., Tabora, Tanganyika Territory. 

 Specimens collected : 



13 adult males, 4 adult females, Gato River near Gardula, Ethiopia, April 



8-May 4, 1912. 

 1 adult female, Tertale, Ethiopia, June S, 1912. 



1 immature male, 1 adult female. Mar Moi-a, Ethiopia, June 14, 1912. 

 1 adult female, Anole, Ethiopia, June 17, 1912. 

 3 immature males, 2 adult females, Meru Forest, Kenya Colony, August 10, 



1912. 

 1 immature male, 2 adult females, Tharaka district, Kenya Colony, August 



12, 1912. 

 1 immature male, Tana River, Kenya Colony, August 17, 1912. 



Neunzig*^ has separated Abyssinian birds, under the name ahys- 

 sinica, on the basis of supposedly smaller wing and tail dimen- 

 sions and a more brownish cast in the nuptial plumage of the adult 

 males. I have compared the present series with a fair series from 

 Kenya Colony and Tanganyika Territory and find no reason for 

 recognizing ahyssinlca, as none of the characters have any existence 

 in fact. Similarly, C. a. sassii Neunzig, described from the Kivu 

 district, is not valid. 



The present form occurs from central and southern Shoa south 

 through Uganda to Urundi and the Kivu district, Belgian Congo, 

 and through Kenya Colony to northern Tanganyika Territory. 

 Sclater ®* writes that e([ues ranges over the northern half of Tangan- 

 yika Territory and that alhonotatus reaches its northern limits in 

 Nyasaland and on the Royuma River on the Mozambique-Tangan- 

 yikan border. Shelley ,^^ however, definitely states that alhonotatus 

 ranges north to Ugogo, whence eqiies is also known. It may be that 

 the two meet in that region; I have seen undoubted aJhonotatiis from 

 Dodoma. If both forms breed together anywhere in north-central 

 Tanganyika Territory, it may be necessary to consider them specifi- 

 cally distinct. They are easily distinguished by the color of the lesser 

 upper wing coverts in the breeding males — yellow in alhonotatus and 

 chestnut in eques. 



All the birds collected in southern Ethiopia, April 8-June 17, are 

 in worn breeding plumage; those obtained in Kenya Colony, August 



'^x L'Olseau, new ser., vol. 3, pp. 694-701, 1933. 

 «Zool. Anz., vol. 78, p. 117, 1928. 

 ^ Systema avium .asthiopicarum, pt. 2, p. 766, 1930. 

 85 The birds of Africa, vol. 4, p. 47, 1905. 



