( 55 ) 



Several pairs wi>re observerl, and one shot:, on the clayey hills 23 km. south of 

 Onargla, side by side with Oe. leucopyga aegra, and again on the hills near the 

 Hassi el-Hadjar, on March 16. 



59. Oenanthe leucopyga aegra snbsp. nov. 

 {Saxicolic U'ucopijiia anct. part.^ 

 Cf. Ni,r. Z<,„l. xviii. p. ,-,18. 



A renewed examination of our now good series of thirteen Algerian adnlt 

 males and seven adult females has altered my view, as expressed in Vikf. 

 ■pal. Fauna i. p. TOO. I find tliat the Western (Algerian) birds are distinctly 

 smaller, the wings of the males measnving 101 — 106, and once 107'5 mm., as 

 compared with 106 — 109 in thirteen Egyptian and Palestine birds in the Tring 

 Mnsenm. Connt Zedlitz {Jourti. f. Orn. 1912, p. 560) gives even lOo — 113 for 

 thirteen specimens {$ and ? !) from Palestine, Sinai, and Arabia, thongli only 

 97 — 1U3 for four (c? ?) Egyptian ones. Besides the thirteen skins with wings from 

 106 — 109 we have also one female from Abu Hamed in Nubia with a wing of 

 barely 96, but against this stands an Algerian female with a wing of only 92 mm. ; 

 both these birds are apparently young individuals. The other females from 

 Algeria have wings of 94 — loo, once lOO'S, against 101 — 102'o mm. in five examples 

 from Egypt and Palestine.* 



There is thus a marked difference in size, and, considering that 4 or 5 mm. is 

 a lot in small birds, and that their wings can be measured to a nicety, it is worth 

 while to distinguisli the form fonnd in Africa Minor by a special name, as above. 

 Type of C. leucopyga aegra : 6 peradultus Gara Kliuia, 10. iii. 1912, No. 206. 



In Viig. d. pal. Fauna i. p. TOO, footnote, I said that the wings of Egyptian 

 males reach a length upwards to 112 mm., but I cannot now find such a large one, 

 and I am afraid that it was a mistake and should read 109 ; on the other hand 

 Zedlitz quotes 105 — 113 for Palestine and Sinai. 



In Vog. pal. Fauna i. p. TOO I spoke of possible differences between the 

 birds from Egypt (Nubia) and those from Palestine. Count Zedlitz (I.e.) believes 

 apparently too that the latter form is larger. From the material now before me I 

 cannot say if these forms are separable or not, lint that does not, of conrse, affect 

 the status of 0. I. aegra. It strikes me that our Palestine series shows a fine 

 glossy blue-black plumage, while those from Nnbia and Africa Minor are more 

 pure black, without a binish sheen ; as, however, the Palestine birds are all shot in 

 November and on December 4, and our series from Egypt and Africa Minor consists 

 of birds collected from March 3 to Jane, I would like to see a series of Palestine 

 spring birds and Western autumn specimens before separating a third, Syrian race. 



The extent of black on the rectrices varies, but females and young have 

 generally more. 



0. lemopijga aegra was met with for the first time — one specimen only — on 

 the top of Gara Klima, on March 10. From the clay hills south of Ouargla (see 

 Plate IX. lower photograph) southwards these birds were seen in most suitable 

 localities ; they were very rare — in fact only one was seen once — -in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of El-CJolea, but they were common in the Southern Oued Mya 



• t'oiinl, Ze'llilK (,/oKr«./. Orn. 11)12, p. 869) accuses me of a clerical error in giving the measure- 

 ments of the bills as 20-21 mm., but my statements are [lerfectly correct, as I measureti from the ba.iu of 

 the skull, as exiilaineil elsewhere. 



