BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 445 



LAGONOSTICTA SENEGALA BRUNNEICEPS Sharpe 



Figure 29 



Lagonosticta hrmmeiceps Sharpe, Catalogue of the birds in the British Museum, 

 vol. 13, p. 277, 1890 : Type in British Museum from Maragaz, Eritrea. 



Specimens collected : 



1 male, 1 female, Dire Daoua, Ethiopia, October 15, 1911 (male) (female 



undated). 

 1 male, Duletcha, Ethiopia, January 24, 1912. 

 1 male, 1 female, Sadi Malka, Ethiopia, January 28, 1912. 

 4 males, 2 females, Hawash River, Ethiopia, February 7-10, 1912. 



In northeastern Africa there are five forms of the red-billed fire- 

 finch, as follows: 



1. L. s. hrunneice ps : Eritrea and most of Ethiopia (except the 

 highlands, and southern Shoa), westward in the Sudan to Kordofan 

 and Darfur. I have no Eritrean birds for study, and so I follow 

 Sclater in considering eryihreae and carlo as synonyms. 



2. L. s. ahayensk: The southern Shoan Lakes area. 



3. L. 8. soviaUe7isis: Southern Somaliland, Jubaland, the coastal 

 areas of Kenya Colony south to northeastern Tanganyika Territory 

 (to Kilosa) and inland in northern Kenya Colony to the Northern 

 Guaso Nyiro River. 



4. L. s. kikuyuens'is : The inland plateau of central and western 

 Kenya Colony. 



5. L. s. ruberrima : Uganda, the eastern Ituri district of the Belgian 

 Congo, Ruanda, Urundi, and northwestern Tanganyika Territory. 



These forms may be distinguished by the following key (based on 

 males) : 



a}. Upper back brown with no or little reddish wash brvmneiceps 



d\ Upper back brownish with a definite reddish wash. 

 &\ Back light brown, washed with red. 



c\ Under tail coverts grayish brown somaliensis 



(f. Under tail coverts deeper brown, with a yellowish tinge abayensis 



6'. Back dark brown, washed with red kikuyuensis and ruberrima'^ 



The differences between some of these races are rather slight and 

 are not so great as the blunt wording of the key would indicate. 



Zedlitz** has reviewed the races of this bird and recognizes ery- 

 threae and carlo and suggests that incerta is possibly still another 

 form. I have examined the type of incerta and agree with Sclater *' 

 that it has nothing to do with L. senegala^ but it is a race of L. 

 rufopicta^ a synonym of L. rufopicta laterltia. 



The specimens collected are in worn plumage. Their size varia- 

 tions are as follows: Males — wing, 50-52 (average, 51.1) ; tail, 39-41 



« Tbese last two may be distinguished only in the females, which are darker, browner in 

 ruberrima, and paler, grayer, in kikuyuensis. 

 «0rn. Monatsb. vol. 18, pp. 171-174, 1910. 

 « Systema avium ^thiopicarum, pt. 2, p. 792, 1930. 



