of the Genus Ilaplopelia. 5 



I cannot uphold H.johnstoni of Shelley, which he described 

 and figured in ' The Ibis ' for 1893, as distinct from this 

 form ; the type was obtained by Alexander Whyte on the 

 Milan ji Plateau in the highlands of Nyasaland. I have 

 carefully compared a series of twenty adult birds from 

 south of the Zambesi River with nine adult examples 

 from the type-locality of H. johnstoni, and the characters 

 given by Shelley do not hold good. It may be mentioned, 

 however, that I found eight specimens from the Chirinda 

 Forest, together with the Nyassaland examples, to be slightly 

 darker on the back than specimens from the country south 

 of Rhodesia. 



The specimen from British East Africa, which I refer to 

 this species, was obtained on Mt. Kenya by Mr. H. T. 

 Mackinder, and is now in the National Collection. It is 

 the only specimen known from the country north of 

 Nyasaland. 



//. /. larvata belongs to the section of the genus the 

 members of which do not appear to assume a grey plumage 

 in the adult male, and which have chestnut under tail- 

 coverts, the general colour of the breast being cinnamon- 

 brown. A large series of specimens have been examined, 

 and none shows the slightest sign of becoming grey on the 

 breast. An immature bird which has almost assumed adidt 

 plumage still retains the barred plumage of the young on 

 the wing-coverts. 



It appears to assume the adult plumage from that of the 

 barred young in a single moult. 



Haplopelia larvata bronzina. 



Columba bronzina Riipp. Neue Wirbelth. 1835, p. 65, 

 pi. xxiii. fig. 1 : Simen Province, Abyssinia. 



Range. Abyssinia and Shoa. 



H. l. bronzina belongs to the cinnamon-brown breasted 

 Haplopelias with chestnut under tail-coverts. I can only 

 consider this Pigeon to be a subspecies of H. larvata. It 

 may, however, be readily distinguished from that bird by 

 its much smaller size ; the wing-measurement of the single 



