920 PROCEEDTNas OF THE XATIOXAL Ml'SEUM. vol. xxviii. 



2. Dicrurus adsimilis divaricatus (LicJitciiKlc'ni). 



Mascirapa diniricfUi Lichtenstein, N'crz. Doiil)!. Zool. Mus. JU'i'liii, 1<S1';!, p. 52 

 (Senegambia)., 



Edolius Juguhris Hemprich and Ehrenbeiu4, Synib. Phys., Avet^, 1828, fol. p., 

 pi. vrir,»fig. 3 (Ambukol, Dongola, Nubia). 



Dicrurus canipeniiifi iiwAWSOS, Birds West Afr. , I, 18o7, p. 254 (Senegal). 



DleruTUfi aru/eatus Cassin, Proc. Acad. Nat. 8ci. Phila., 1851, j). .'U8 (F'azogl, 

 Al)yssinia). 



7>/rro((v«.s- fr/////ra;)/*//(oZ?«ws Heugltn, Jonrn. f. Ornith., 1867, p. 294 (Wurtenl- 

 b<'^g, niuiinscript) (Sennaar, Egyptian Sudan; and Fazogl, Al)yssinia). 



IUcninia J'uya.c Peters, Journ. f. Ornitb., 18t)8, p. 132 (Tete and Inhambane, 

 Portuguese P^ast Africa). 



Similar to I)!crurns adsimilis cuhimHi.s^ but very much smaller, the 

 wing" measuriiio- only 118-lBO mm. 



Central and northern Africa, from Ang-ola and Mashona Land to 

 Somali Land, Nubia, the Sudan, and Senegal. 



Examples from Angola are larger than those from more northern 

 localities, and show in this a vergence toward true adsii/iilis, but they 

 appear to be undoul)todly nearer divaricatus. So far as we have been 

 able to determine fiom specimens examined, the lairds from Senegal, 

 Senegambia, Nubia, and Somali Land seem to l)e the same as those 

 from Gei-man East Africa and the Zambesi lii\'er, so that the name 

 diwfricafifx Lichtenstein, based on specimens from Senegambia, becomes 

 available for this race. Mr. Oscar Neumann has recently shown the 

 great difference in size which exists between adsiiitilis and divaricatus/'' 

 but he employs for the latter the subspecific term fngax Peters,'' 

 apparently overlooking the five prior names. 



3. Dicrurus adsimilis atactus [Oherlinlser). 



Dicrurus modestus aiactus Oberholsek, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XXII, 1899, p. 35 

 ( Fantee, western Africa) . 



Like Dicrurus adsiriiilis diraricatus in size; but the wing-quills 

 darker, more l)lackish; the plumage of upper and lower parts more 

 velvety in appearance, with more of a bluish than a greenish metallic 

 sheen. Coast region of central western Africa, from Liberia to the 

 Niger Eiver. 



This form diilers so much from ])otli adsimilis and div<(i'icatus in 

 the velvety bluish color of the upper parts that Doctor Sharpe was 

 induced to consider it the same as Dicru7'us modestus [ = coradnus], to 

 which he referred his specimens from the Gold Coast.'' Misled by 

 this the present writer descril)ed atactus as a subspecies of modextiis/' 

 whereas there is now no doubt at all of its correct position as a sub- 

 species of />. adsimilis. These differences, moreover, ai-e not, as 

 Captain Shcdley infers,^ simply adventitious, but have a definite geo- 

 graphical signiticance. 



«.Tourn. f. Ornith., 1900, p. 277. 



l> IHcrurus fugax Tetkrs, Journ. f. Ornitii., 18(18, p. 132. . 



^Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., Ill, 1877, p. 233. 



''Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XXII, 1899, p. 35. 



' Ibis, 1901, p. 589. 



