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which even grow on the summit plateau ilbell, one might dare 

 to assert that the northern boundary of the bird is 14000 feet. 



V. Someren calls his Elgon-specimens, belonging to this 

 bird, from the western slopes simply Nedarinia tacaeze (Nov. Zool., 

 XXV, 1918, p. 287) and thus, in the same manner as Reiche- 

 n w (Vog. Afr. Ill, p. 503) and Shelley (Birds Africa, vol. II, 

 p. 26—27) makes the Abessynian form synonymous with the 

 East African jacksoni. My investigations of this matter have 

 also compelled me to come to the same decision. 



To establish different forms on the basis of the more or 

 less greenish gloss is meaningless, for such differences frequently 

 occur in specimens from the same locality (vide R e i c h e n o w, 

 op. cit.). Neumann points out (Journ. f. Orn., 1900, p. 258) 

 that jacksoni from Mau, Kikuyu and Kenia has a beautiful, pure 

 green colour on the head, while tacasse from Abessynia and 

 Schoa has a plain steel -green colour, shading into violet-red. 

 Yet, he adds that these differences are easier to see than to 

 describe My cf specimen from Mau and those from Elgon, 

 ought then, if that character was the decisive feature, to be true 

 tacazze^ for a rather plain violet-red colour is prominent on the 

 heads of all of them. 



If, on the other hand, the little difference in the wing- 

 length were the decisive character (in full-grown cf specimens) I 

 should still hesitate to refer them to jacksoni, for which Neu- 

 mann gives a wing-measurement of 81—83 mm., whereas 

 my specimens have 78 — 81 mm. (see table below). However, 

 as both tacasze and jacksoni may have a wing -measure- 

 ment of 81 mm, such specimens would be impossible to 

 distinguish from one another for, as already mentioned, the 

 gloss varies very considerably and this character is thus of no 

 systematic value. 



Three of the male specimens are in full summer dress but 

 differ from all descriptions in having the under tail- 

 coverts broadly edged with violet- red. Whether 

 this should be characteristic for a special Elgon-form or not, 

 I cannot with certainty decide at present. Yet, it seems to me 

 most probable that it is not so, but that the violet-red under 

 tail-coverts are to be considered as characteristic of the full- 

 grown male in nuptial dress. Ogilvie-Grant has found 

 that the under tail -coverts of Necturinia erythrocerca vary in 

 colour and attaches no systematic importance to this difference, 

 and it should therefore be the same in the present case. In 

 this view I am supported by the fact that those specimens 

 which lack this violet -red colour, thus having entirely black 

 under tail-coverts, are such as have not completely assumed the 

 breeding dress, and are thus younger, which is evident from the 

 fact that a few black feathers of the lower parts are dark 

 greenish grey on the tips and the feathers on the lower part of 



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