1922.] the Near East and Tropical East Africa. 35 



Tschusi (Orn. Jahrb. xv. 1904, p. 123) as Apus melha tuneti 

 from Tunisia. But I should like to see more breeding birds 

 from Tunisia and Algeria before agreeing to this separation. 



Then arises the question as to which race the name of 

 melha applies. Linnrous named the bird after a figure by 

 Edwards (Plate 27) of a bird from Gribraltar. The colour of 

 this bird is particularly dark, even darker than most birds 

 from southern Europe, and I consider the name melha must 

 therefore apply to the southern European race. I have not 

 examined breeding birds from Gibraltar, wdiich may belong 

 to either the typical race or tuneti from northern Africa. 



If tuneti is separable, then the name would appear to 

 apply to birds breeding in northern Africa, Somaliland, 

 Arabia, Crete, Palestine, and east to Persia, but not to 

 Baluchistan and Himalayan birds. Birds from southern 

 India and Ceylon appear to be even darker than others 

 from southern Europe and the Himalayas, and may need 

 separation. Blanford (Fauna Brit. India) states they 

 perhaps breed in Ceylon. I have seen largo breeding 

 colonics on the eastern escarpment of the Nilgiri Hills, but 

 failed to collect specimens. 



But a female in the British Museum collected at Deesa in 

 Central India on 1 October, 1875, is as pale as others from 

 Somaliland, Algeria, etc. ; whilst a bird from Ceylon in the 

 Tring collection is particularly dark. 



An examination of the series in the British Museum, 

 comprising birds from southern Europe, Himalayas, Palestine, 

 Crete, south India, and Ceylon shows that individual variation 

 is great, and without a series of breeding birds from the 

 various localities, it is impossible to say whether there really 

 exists more than one race in southern Europe, Asia, northern 

 Africa, Arabia and Somaliland. 



APUS APUS. 



The Swifts of this group have been sorely mutilated by 

 modern ornithologists, more especially those races which 

 occur in the Ethiopian Region. Any slight individual 



d2 



