BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 449 



Incidentally, kUimensis occurs farther north than is indicated by 

 Sclater.^^ I have seen specimens from Mount Lololokui in northern 

 Kenya Colony, which are clearly of that race and not quartinm. 



The present specimens are in fairly fresh plumac;e. Their dimen- 

 sions are as follows: Males — wing, 47-48; tail, 37-39; culmen, 8-8.5; 

 tarsus, 13-14 mm. Females — wing, 45-46; tail, 39-40; culmen, 8; 

 tarsus, 13-13.5 mm. 



ESTRILDA ASTRILD MINOR (Cabanis) 



Figure 30 



Bahropyga miuor Cabanis, Journ. fiir Orn., 1878, p. 229: Voi River, Kenya 



Colony. 

 SpExriMBNs COLLECTED : 1 male, Tana River, Kenya Colony, August 17, 1912. 



In the general region of interest to us in this study, five races of 

 the common waxbill occur, as follows : 



1. E. a. minor: The coastal and subcoastal portions of eastern 

 Africa from southern Somaliland south through Kenya Colony and 

 the northern half of eastern Tanganyika Territory. 



2. E. a. massaica: The inland areas of the southern half of Kenya 

 Colony. 



3. E. a. nyanzae: Uganda and adjacent parts of Kenya Colony, 

 Kuanda, Urundi, the eastern Belgian Congo, and northeastern 

 Tanganyika Territory. 



4. E. a. macmillani: The upper White Nile and the Sobat-Baro dis- 

 trict of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. 



5. E. a. peasei: The highlands of Ethiopia. 



Two fairly recent reviewers of the races of this bird ^- agree that 

 tnassaica is not distinct from minor, but I find that it is a recog- 

 nizable, though poorly marked, race. Granvik ^^ has reviewed some 

 of the pertinent literature and has found, as I have now, that the 

 difference between massaica and minor is not one of size, as Neumann 

 stated in his original description of the former, but of coloration. 

 The cheeks and chin are purer white in minor than in massaica, 

 which form has these parts lightly tinged with grayish. 



The Uganda race nyanzae is distinguished by the more grayish- 

 brown, less rufous-brown back, fairly white chin, and the less dis- 

 tinct bars on the breast. The Sudanese form m.acmillam is smaller 

 (wing, 43-45 mm) and has the underparts a richer pink with the 

 barring becoming obsolete on the breast; chin whitish. The Ethi- 

 opian peasei is the largest of all the races (wings, 50 mm) and has 



" Systema avium ^Ethiopicarum. pt. 2, p. 794. 1030. 



E^Zedlitz. Journ. fiir Orn., 1916, p. 36; and Sclater and Mackworth-Praod, Ibis, 1918, 

 pp. 442-444. 



53 Journ. fiir Orn., 1923, Sonderheft, p. 175. 



