— 97 — 



Irides brownish red, — dark brown, bill yellowish green, 

 and the base yellow; legs yellowish brown — dirty lilac -cou- 

 loured. 



wing, tarsus, culmen, 



128, 134, 136 mm. 16-17 mm. 19 mm. 



The females are rather like each other except in the red 

 tint of the underparts, which varies from pale roseate (in the 

 young bird) to rose-red. Two of the specimens have a predo- 

 minant green gloss on the rectrices but in the tird the tail- 

 feathers are steel-blue. 



wing, tarsus, culmen, 



130, 133, juv. 126 mm. 16—16.5 mm. 18 — 19 ram. 

 Irides dark -brown; bill as in male (young bird a darker 

 greenish); legs pale roseate-lilae-coloured. 



Coraciidae. 



Eurystomusf afer rufobuccalis Rchw. — Rchw. II. p, 231. 



2 (5(5 ad. 16.-17. 5. Soy. - 1 ^ ad. 6. 6. Mount Elgon. — 1 e ad. 15. 5.; 



1 Q juv. 16. 5. Soy. 



On the way up towards Elgon — a day's march from Soy — 

 I came upon a little flock of this Roller out on the acacia-plains. 

 In the late hours of the day they flew screaming from tree to 

 tree — about 10 in number — and always perched on the highest, 

 dry branches of the acacias, where they could only be seen with 

 difficulty. They were not afraid, but would let one get very 

 near them before taking flight. 



Excluding the young bird, whose plumage considerably 

 differs from that of the old birds, the other three from the Soy 

 district exhibit rather great differences in regard to the colours 

 of the rectrices and upper tail -coverts. And yet they are shot 

 out of one and the same flock, whence it must be considered 

 very likely that, in spite of the differences, they belong to the 

 same form. 



One of them has the two middle rectrices a uniform brown 

 and the two median tail-coverts brown, which later character is, 

 as a matter of fact, found in all. 



Another has a distinct light blue tinge in the form of a 

 narrow band along both sides of the shafts of the middle rectrices. 



A third has a broad dark-blue tinge at the base and along 

 the shaft of the middle rectrices, and in the Elgon specimen 

 this blue field stands out more prominently. 



Whether any one of these is to be referred to E. afer aethio- 

 picus is difficult to decide. The different measurements, however, 

 do not agree with those given byReichenow (Vogel Afrikas 

 II. p. 231) but rather with those of Neumann (Journ. f. Orn. 

 1905, p. 185) for the above mentioned form, where, e. g. the 

 wing-length amounts to 179—190 ram. 



7 



