486 PRIONOPS CRISTATA 
black, legs orange red. Wing 4°7, tail 3:9, tarsus 0-9, wing of female 4-8, 
Moulou River, J, ?, 14. 3. 01 (Pease). 
Subspecies P. c. melanoptera. Differs from the typical form in the short- 
ness of the frontal crest, the feathers of which though erect and stiff are 
hardly longer than those of P. poliocephala, nor are the posterior ones curled 
forward, but lie back almost flat on the crown, and hardly extend back behind 
the level of the eye. Wing 4:5, tail 3:7, tarsus 0-9, wing of female 4:8. Fer 
Libah, Somaliland, type, ¢, 2, 20. 10. 96 (Lord Delamere). 
Two examples from Somililand collected by Lort Phillips have entirely 
white heads and are perhaps young birds. 
Subspecies P. c. intermedia. Differs from P. c. melanoptera only in its 
smaller dimensions, while both the examples examined have very narrow 
white edgings to the inner secondaries. Wing 4:2, tail 3-4, tarsus 0°8. Teita, 
type (Hunter). 
The Black-winged Helmet-Shrike ranges over north-east 
Africa from Eritrea to Mount Elgon and Baringo, and east- 
ward to Teita and Somaliland. 
Neumann and Zedlitz recognize four distinguishable sub- 
species the characters of which are given above and are fairly 
recognizable. The following is the distribution :— 
P. c. cristata.—Type obtained by Riippell near Massaua on 
the Red Sea, in Eritrea and northern Abyssinia. 
P. c. omoensis.—Type obtained by Neumann on the Omo 
River north of Lake Stephanie—from Elgon and Baringo to 
Shoa. 
P.c. melanoptera.—Type obtained by Atkinson (for Lord 
Delamere), at Fer Libah in western Somaliland—throughout 
Somaliland from Harrar to the lower valley of the Juba 
River. 
P.c.intermedia.—Type from Teita in British Hast Africa— 
in the desert country of the eastérn portion of British Hast 
Africa. 
The habits of this species resemble those of the other 
Helmet-Shrikes. They are invariably found in flocks of 
10 to 20 birds and frequent dry acacia country. ‘They do not 
go into the mountains or into thick bush. Erlanger found 
