328 LANIARIUS FUNEBRIS 
Laniarius funebris, Finsch and Hartl. Vég. Ost-Afr. p. 352, pl. 4, fig. 2 
(1870); Shelley, B. Afr. i. No. 734 (1896); Reichen. Vog. Afr. ii. 
p. 574 (1908); Neum. J. f. O. 1905, p. 222 Shoa; Hrlanger, ¢. c. 
p. 696 Somaliland ; Sjéstedt, Kilimandjaro-Meru Exped. i. p. 114 
(1910). 
Rhynchastatus lugubris, Cab. J. f. O. 1868, p. 412; id. Decken’s Reis. iii. 
p. 26, pl. 7 (1869) Hast Africa. 
Laniarius funebris rothschildi, Neumann, J. f. O. 1907, p. 595 Sagan River, 
S. Shoa. 
Adult. Deep slate-blue above and below, shading into black on the 
head, wings and tail; feathers of the lower back with subterminal white 
patches; under surface of quills dark brown, with paler inner margins. 
‘Tris dark brown ; bill and feet black.’’ Total length 8-25 inches, culmen 0°85, 
wing 3°5, tail 3-4, tarsus 1-1. Gessima River, g, 23. 1. 00 (Lord Delamere). 
The female is smaller,wing 3:3 (Lord Delamere). 
Immature. Has tawny edges and tips to some of the wing-coverts and 
traces of transverse bands of tawny and dusky above and below, especially of 
the upper and under tail-coverts. Ukamba, g, juv. (Jackson). 
The Slate-coloured Boubou ranges from Shoa south 
through Somaliland and Hast Africa to the Nyasa-Tangan- 
yika plateau; westwards it has been met with in Ankole to 
the west of Lake Victoria. 
The type of the species was collected by Speke during his 
well-known expedition with Grant in 1860, at Maninga in 
the Unyamwesi country, now in German East Africa. He 
rather happily called it the ‘‘ Black Metal-toned Whistler.” 
About the same time another, but a much smaller individual, 
the wing of which only measured 78 mm. (3'1) against 99 mm. 
(3'°8) was sent to Europe by Baron von der Decken, and 
described by Cabanis as Rhynchastatus lugubris. Reichenow 
has since shown that there is considerable variation in size 
among individuals, and that the types of the two species 
appear to have been extremes. j 
In Shoa this bird was procured by Antinori and Ragazzi 
for the Genoa Museum, and by Lord Lovat, Harrison and 
Pease at various localities between Addis Ababa and the 
