1 92 1.] the Near East and Tropical East Afrira. 633 



Valley birds. A specimen from Beerslieba is however 

 fraterculus, which agrees with the dark A. d. deserti in colour 

 but has a much smaller culmen. A. d. fraterculus is also the 

 Jordan Valley bird. To further complicate the problem, 

 the pink A. d. algeriensis occurs on the west bank of the 

 Nile about Sohag and Luxor, ^i. d. erythrocliroa Rchw. occurs 

 farther south on the Nile at Shendi and Khartoum, and is a 

 redder, darker bird than any of the abov(\ I have not seen 

 examples of katJterina: Zedlitz from the Sinai Hills. 



Ammomanes plicenicura (Frankl.). 



The problem of this species in northern Africa is no less 

 perplexing. 



An examination of the large series of A. p. arenicola from 

 Algeria, Tunis, and Kerma (Dongola bend of the Nile), 

 together with a series of nine birds I collected near C'airo, 

 two from the Siwa Oasis, and one from Solium, shows the 

 following : — 



(a) December, January, and May birds from near Cairo 



and Solium have the dark colour oi A, deserti deserti. 

 Wing 89-96. 



[b) Two January birds from Siwa Oasis have the pale 



colour with a pink tinge of A. deserti algeriensis. 



Wing 90. 

 (<■) Spring birds from Algeria have the pale colour of 



A. deserti isabelUna. Wing; 92-97. 

 [d) Two birds from Kerma resemble, in the one case, shot 



on 25. ii., Cairo and Solium birds, and in the other 



case, shot on 5. iii., Algerian birds. 

 The problem is this. Are all northern African birds the 

 same, or are these three races, as in A. deserti. geographical 

 forms worthy of separation ? If they are the same race, 

 but having the dark (^A. d. deserti^ colour in fresh autumn 

 plumage, pink (^A. d. algeriensis) colour in winter, and sandy 

 isabelline {A. d. isahellina) colour in spring, then the three 

 races of Ammomanes deserti are probably the same bird in 

 diti'erent seasonal plumages. This latter does not seem to be 

 the case, for all the A. d. algeriensis I have seen have in 

 both spring and autanm the pink-tinged coloration. 



