434 BULLETIN 153, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



The dimensions of the present species are as follows : Males — wing, 

 49.5, 50.5; tail, 33, 33; culmen, 10, 10; tarsus, 12, 12 mm. Females- 

 wing, 49.5, 50 ; tail, 29, 31.5 ; culmen, 10, 10 ; tarsus, 11, 12.5 mm. All 

 are in slightly abraded condition. 



Jackson ^ writes that this bird is plentiful in the vicinity of habi- 

 tations in Kenya Colony. He says: "At Kibwezi it was breeding 

 in March. The nest, which is roughly made of dry grass and lined 

 with feathers, is generally placed in a table-topped mimosa or other 

 thorny tree, some 10 to 25 feet from the ground." The nesting sea- 

 son is probably indefinite in extent as cucullatus has been found 

 nesting in every month of the year in Uganda. The nominate form 

 has been known to use old nests of Plooeus reichenowi, as well as to 

 build its own, but the eastern race appears to build for itself 

 regularly. 



EUODICE CANTANS MERIDIONALIS (Mearns) 



Aidemosyne cantans meridionalis Mearns, Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. Gl, no. 

 14, p. 4, 1913: Indunumara Mountains, Kenya Colony. 



Specimens collected : 



1 female, Djibouti, French Somalilaud, November 23, 1911. 



1 female, Sadi Malka, Ethiopia, January 31, 1912. 



1 male. Iron Bridge, Hawash River, Ethiopia, February 5, 1912. 



1 male, Hawash River, above Iron Bridge, Ethiopia, February 6, 1912. 



3 females, Turturo, Ethiopia, June 15, 1912. 



4 males, 4 females, Chaffa, Ethiopia, June 24-25, 1912. 



2 males, 18 miles southwest of Hor, Kenya Colony, July 1, 1912. 



7 males, 5 females, Indunumara Mountains, Kenya Colony, July 15-16, 1912. 

 1 female, Le-se-dun, Kenya Colony, July 26, 1912. 

 1 female, Meru River, Kenya Colony, August 8, 1912. 



I have not seen any topotypical material of tavetensis van Som- 

 eren ' and therefore can not decide its validity. Sclater * considers 

 it indistinguishable from meridionalis. I have seen two specimens 

 from Dodoma, Tanganyika Territory, which were identified in Tring 

 as tavetensis and w^hich are practically indistinguishable from the 

 type of meridionads. Hartert ° has also doubted the validity of 

 tavetensis. The characters on which tavetensis was based are darker, 

 more grayish dorsal coloration, the scaly pattern on the forehead 

 more pronounced, the throat spots larger and more distinct, and the 

 underparts whiter, less washed with pale creamy buff. I find the 

 dorsal and frontal color differences do not hold; the chin spots vary 

 in the present series of meridionalis; the whiter underparts seem to 

 be the only valid character, and the difference there is a very small one. 



3 Ibis, 1899. pp. 604-605. 



»Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, vol. 41, p. 121, 1921 : Simba. 

 * Systema avium ^thlopicaiuin, pt. 2, p. 772, 1930. 

 "Nov. Zoo!., vol. 34, p. 195, 1928. 



