354 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



This sunbird occurs from, the Red Sea Province of the Sudan 

 through Eritrea and Ethiopia to Somaliland and Jubaland, Rendile- 

 land to Turkanaland in northeastern Uganda and to Kordofan. In 

 southwestern Arabia it is replaced by another race hellmayri. 



Blanford °° found this bird very common both in the coastal belt 

 and up to an altitude of 4,000 feet above the sea. He found birds in 

 molt and others in full fresh plumage in January and February. 

 Specimens in full plumage were taken by various collectors in Shoa 

 from March to October. Erlanger ^^ found the bird breeding early in 

 April in Gurraland. Lort Phillips ^- found it nesting early in March 

 on Wagga Mountain, in the Goolis Range of British Somaliland. 



Mearns noted some 500 of these birds at Gato River near Gardula, 

 March 29-May 17; at Anole village. May 18, he saw 4; Sagon River, 

 May 19, 10 noted; Bodessa, May 19-June 3, 200 birds; Sagon River, 

 June 3-6, 40 were seen. 



CINNYRIS MARIQUENSIS SUAHELICUS Reichenow 



Cinnyris suahelica Reichenow, Journ. fiir Orn., 1891, p. 161 : Tabora district, 



Tanganyika Territory. 

 Specimens collected : 2 adult males, 4 immature males, 3 adult females, Tana 



River, Camp No. 6, Kenya Colony, August 21-22, 1912. 



Both van Someren ^^ and Sclater ^* suggest that Helionympha 

 raineyi Mearns is a synonym of this bird. Mearns based his new 

 "species" on two specimens, not on one, as his published account indi- 

 cates, and both of them have been available for study in the present 

 connection. They are unquestionably the same as Cinnyris mari- 

 quensis suahelicus, although they both happen to have slightly longer 

 bills than the series of that race in the United States National Museum. 

 The elongated central rectrices, supposed to set off the genus Helionym- 

 pha, do not differ appreciably in any way from those of the present 

 species. 



In northeastern and eastern Africa there are three races of this 

 sunbird, and it is highly possible that a fourth may be demonstrated 

 to exist in the northern portions of Kenya Colony. The three named 

 races are as follows : 



1. O. m. hawkeri: British Somaliland. This form, which I have 

 not seen, is considered identical with osiris by van Someren, but it 

 is recognized by Sclater. It is said to be like osiris but to have a 

 darker brownish-red breast band and to have a purer green, less 

 bronze or coppery, sheen on the upperparts. 



oo Observations on the geology and zoology of Abyssinia, p. 351, 1870. 



"Journ. f(ir Orn., 1907, pp. 56-57. 



0= Ibis, 1896, p. 81 ; and 1898, pp. 402-403. 



^3 Nov. Zool., vol. 29, p. 195, 1922. 



" Systema avium ^thiopicarum, pt. 2, p. 690, 1930. 



