of the Ethiopian Region. 225 



present species^ in my opinion very erroneously, as in no stage 

 of plumage can it be said to answer to the following charac- 

 teristics : — " alarum tectricibus remiyibusque nigris margine albo " 

 or "pedes tiavi, ungues rubicundi." The habitat of Gmelin^s 

 bird is unknown. 



Var. minor. 



Oriolus rolleti, Salvadori, Atti R. Accad. Torino, vii. p. 151 : 

 Heugl. Orn. N.-O. Afr. p. 404 (1869). 



O. jm-sonatus, Heugl. J. f. O. 1867, p. 203; 1868, p. 326. 



O. bruchyrhijnchus, Schl. Mus. P.-B. Cur aces, p. 108 {nee 

 Swains.). 



O. larvatus, Heuglin, Syst. Uebers. no. 292. 



Abyssinia [Brun-Rollet, Heuglin) , Angola (Monteiro, Salu) . 



In his work on the ornithology of North-eastern Africa, Dr. 

 von Heuglin states that in a letter to him I said that I believed 

 this race to be a distinct species from 0. larvatus ; but he mis- 

 understood my words. I said that, not having seen an Abys- 

 sinian specimen, I could not say for certain, but that I was dis- 

 inclined to join the two species, because I very much disliked 

 uniting any two species without having personally examined the 

 birds. I, however, wrote to Dr. Finsch on the subject, and he 

 forwarded me the following reply : — 



*' Of this so-called species I have minutely compared the types 

 in Turin and other specimens, also from the White Nile, in 

 Vienna, and have already expressed my doubts in our work on 

 the ornithology of Eastern Africa (also again in the Appendix) . 

 As regards the colours there is, indeed, no diflference between it 

 and the South-African 0. larvatus; this you may depend upon; 

 but commonly the measurements are not so large, the bill espe- 

 cially being a little shorter. I should have considered these differ- 

 ences of specific value, but for the fact that there are intermediate 

 forms, which will not allow one to do so. 0. rolleti is by no 

 means a representative of 0. larvatus in North-eastern Africa^ 

 as there are specimens as small from Angola and in the Leyden 

 Museum from South Africa {teste Schlegel). I consider it there- 

 fore nothino; more than a small race. 



