40 Col. R. Meinertzhagen on Birds from [Ibis, 



parts black-brown, usually darker on the head, rump, and 

 wings. The white throat-feathers have dark shaft-stripes. 

 Wing 160 mm." 



Van Someren's original description of nakuruensis reads 

 as follows : — " Less greenish-black and smaller than 

 A. a. apus. Whole upper side glossy blackish-brown, 

 slightly darker on the mantle. Lores blackish. The whole 

 of the underside, except the throat which is whitish, black. 

 Primaries and primary-coverts blackish with a greyish 

 tinge. Secondary-coverts paler, scapulars blackish. Wing 

 155 to 165 mm." 



Now in examining these three descriptions there is really 

 very little difference in them in either colour or size. 



I have also examined Van Someren's type of nakuruensis 

 and a co-type of roehli obtained in Usambara, the type- 

 locality. The birds are very near, except that in nakuruensis 

 the head of the specimen is pressed back into the body and 

 shows little white on the throat, whereas in the co-type of 

 roehli the head and neck are fully stretched and the white 

 throat extends a long way. The centre of the back iu the 

 co-type of roehli has slightly more bluish-black than in Van 

 Someren's type of nakuruensis. The wing of the co-type of 

 roehli is 165 mm., and of the type of nakuruensis 158 mm. 



There is another important point. A. a. shelleyi is not a 

 brownish bird, except in worn plumage. This is clear from 

 the original description. These pale brown birds of equal 

 size to shelleyi arc a race of murinus described from 

 Somaliland as somalicus by Stephenson Clarke (Bull. B. 0. C. 

 xl. 1919, p. 49). The fact that shelleyi has been considered a 

 pale brown bird appears to have originated in two skins in 

 the Tring collection, which were obtained, one in Kavirondo 

 on the Victoria Nyanza and one at Jjake Nakuru. Both are 

 labelled shelleyi, and both are very worn and just com- 

 mencing to moult. But they are probably A. murinus 

 somalicus. 



I also understand that Van Someren found shelleyi, roehli, 

 and nakuruensis all breeding iu the same colony at Lake 



