BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 433 



Jinima, Gomma, Kullo, Gofa, Baku, and Konso, in southwestern 

 Shoa.^* Neumann found it in the Omo Basin. 



In Kenya Colony this bird is widely distributed and common. 

 Van Someren ^^ lists scutatus as a species, as he claims to have ob- 

 tained cucullatus together with it at Nairobi and Elgon. He records 

 cucullatus from as far east as Taveta. This is so different from the 

 results arrived at by Sclater^*^ and shown by the total comparative 

 series I have studied that I can not help but think that van Someren 

 is mistaken in his identification. I have seen 29 adults of scutatus^ 

 and only one of them has any trace of metallic green or purple on 

 the flanks. On the other hand, every one of a series of 10 adults 

 from western Africa (east through Uganda) and of 16 from Puerto 

 Rico (where the typical race was introduced and is now well estab- 

 lished as a wild bird) has this metallic area on the flanks. It is hard 

 to conceive of van Someren getting such opposite results in so ex- 

 tensive a collection as his, Bowen,''^ however, records three males of 

 S. c. cucullatus from Meru, Ken3^a Colony. "All three", he says, 

 "have the green spot on the side of the chest which is characteristic 

 of this race." 



Bannerman ^^ has found this character to be somewhat inconstant 

 but writes that the nominate form differs from scutatus by its more 

 purplish throat (browner in scutatus), "by the more heavily barred 

 rump and upper tail-coverts, and by the more metallic green on the 

 sides of the body, which is often, though not invariably, absent in 

 specimens of S. c. scutatus^ Gyldenstolpe ®^ finds that none of the 

 characters holds very consistently and concludes that scutatus is a 

 race of doubtful validity. While I fully recognize the fact that 

 scutatus is not so well marked a race as many others, still the mate- 

 rial available supports it, and I therefore consider van Someren's 

 and Bowen's Kenyan ''^ cucullatus^'' as scutatus. Neunzig ^ does not 

 consider the flank spot as the chief racial character, but relies mostly 

 on the duller color of the rump and upper tail coverts in scutatus. 



Within the race scutatus there appears to be some variation in 

 size that is correlated with geography. The birds of northeastern 

 Africa are large (wings, 49-52 mm), of the equatorial districts small 

 (wings, 46-47 mm), and of southeastern Africa large again (wings, 

 46-51 mm). These differences merge so gradually that it is not 

 possible to recognize racial forms on the basis of size. 



" Ogilvie-Grant, Ibis, 1913, p. 568. 



s^Nov. Zool., vol. 29, p. 154, 1922. 



" Systema avium iEthiopicarum, pt. 2, p. 769, 1930. 



« Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phiiladelphia. vol. 83, p. 77, 1931. 



»«Rev. Zool. Africaine, vol. 9, pp. 294-295, 1922. 



»9Kongl. Svenslia Vet.-Akad. Handl., 1924, p. 51. 



'Zool. Anz., vol. 70, pp. 191-192, 1927. 



