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PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM, 



VOL. XXVII. 



iippor throat roddisli hazel; rest of lower surface light yellowish 

 green, with a satiny luster, darker and shaded with olive across the 

 jugulum, slightly l^luish on center of abdomen, least yellowish on 

 crissum; lining of wing ochraceous; '"iris red."" 



The type and another specimen from the same locality measure in 

 millimeters as follows: 



Compared with numerous specimens of Merops mtperciliosiis from 

 Madagascar this new form is very dilferent, but theprobality is strong 

 that these extremes are connected l)y intermediates on the continent, 

 and a trinomial is therefore employed for donaldsoni. Its chief dis- 

 tinction lies in its pale coloration, a feature that seems to be charac- 

 teristic of many Somali Land forms. The original description of 

 Merops sujK'rciliosus"^ was liascd on the bird from Madagascar, and the 

 Merojys vaiUanti of Bonaparte* came from the same region. The only 

 remaining synonym, JL^rops riificapiUus Vieillot,'' was founded on 

 Levaillant and was supposedly from Africa; but, judging from the 

 description, it is undoubtedly the same as true Meropt^ suj>eretl!(>Kns 

 from Madagascar. The Somali Land race seems, therefore, up to the 

 present, to have been unprovided with a name. 



POLIHIERAX SEMITORQUATUS HOMOPTERUS, new subspecies. 



Chars, stihsp. — Similar to Pollliierax seinitorquatus semito7'qi/at)ts\]mt 

 upper surface paler, the lower parts more purely white. 



Description. -Ty^e, adult male, No. 17T898, U.S.N.M.; Goulf 

 (Laga), western Somali Land, Africa, November 29, 1894; Dr. A. 

 Donaldson Smith. Above slate gray, the extreme forehead, a narrow 

 cervical collar, and the upper tail-coverts white; tail brownish black, 

 with broad broken bars of white, which are reduced to spots on the 

 middle rectrices; wings sepia brown, all the coverts plain slate gvay, 

 the quills with incomplete white bars (which are more or less fused on 

 the secondaries) on their inner webs, and corresponding spots on their 

 outer vanes, the secondaries with white tips ; sides of neck slate gray 

 like the upper surface; sides of head and entire ventral surface, includ- 

 ing the lining of the wings, white. "Iris brown; bill gray; legs light 

 red; bare eyelid vermilion." Length of wing, 117; tail, 71; exposed 

 culmen without cere, 10; tarsus, 29; middle toe, 19 mm. 



"Linnjeus, Syst. Nat., 12th ed., I, 1766, p. 183. 



'> Consp. Avium, I, 1850, p. 161. 



cNouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat., XIV, 1817, p. 23. 



