-- 126 — 



57 ram for the 99' It is therefore possible that the Elgon 

 bird represents a larger form, which should thus have a se- 

 parate name. 



Irides dark-brown outermost, light brown innermost; upper 

 mandible dark- brown, lower mandible brownish yellow; legs 

 dark lead-coloured (Reich enow — dark horn brown). 



Chloropefanatalensismassaica (Fschr. & Rchw.). — Rchw. II. p. 465. 

 4 (5(5 ad. 10., 13., 17 and 18. 4; 1 5 ad. 18. 9; Nairobi. 



This small series of 5 skins lying before me were pro- 

 cured from one and the same spot in the neighbourhood of 

 Nairobi. They were all shot within a little area of about 20 to 

 25 metres in length, and yet they exhibit such great differences 

 that one might very well make at least 3 sub-species. Even 

 those shot in the month of April, with one or two days' interval, 

 are much unlike each other, but still greater will be the difference 

 if one compares them with the September specimen. 



One of the April specimens is distinguished by having the 

 whole back a uniform rusty-brown, and the upper tail-coverts 

 of the same yellow colour as the under surface of the body. 

 Another has the back a dark olive-brown, the tail-coverts as in 

 the preceding. A third has the back dark olive-brown, the 

 tail-coverts yellow, but the wing-coverts dark cinnamon-brown, 

 in contradistinction to the other specimens which have the last- 

 mentioned feathers blackish brown with olive-yellow edges. 



The September specimen has the whole of the sides of 

 the back dark olive-green (without any brown wash), and the 

 upper tail-coverts of the same colour as the back. This specimen 

 has, in fact, a much darker head than all the others (almost 

 black) and coincides most closely with Chloropeta natalensis 

 umbriniceps Neum. (Ornithol. Monatsber., 1902, p. 10). My 

 specimens all have the head brownish black (not sooty-black 

 as storeyi) therefore 1 consider them mostly as intermediates 

 between massaica and storeyi. 



Bannerraau has pointed out (Ibis 1910, p. 700) that the 

 type-specimen of storeyi was procured on the Nairobi River, 

 that is, in the very district where mine and other specimens of 

 massaica were shot. 



The specimens brought home by Lonnberg (Birds Coll. 

 Sw. Zool. Exp. B. E. Afr., 1911, p. 83), which are at the Royal 

 Museum, Stockholm, are as dark on the head as mine. Lonn- 

 berg (op. cit.) names them massaica. Grant's opinion (Bull. 

 Brit. Orn. Club, 1906, p. 32), which is also shared by Reich e- 

 n w (Vogelf. d. Mittelafr. Seengeb. p. 302), that the latter form 

 is merely CM. massaica, seems to me therefore to be quite 

 correct. I have examined the type-specimen and found that 



