42 Col. tl. Melnertzliugeu 07i Birds from [Ibis, 



Apus apus toulsoni (Bocage). 



Cypselas toulsoni Bocage, Jorn. Sciencias Lisboa, 1870, 

 p. 339 : Loanda. " 



(Original description.) " Smaller than .1. a. apus. Head 

 and nock sooty-brown, forehead paler and throat whitish. 

 Kuinp, npper tail-coverts, wings and tail sooty-brown with a 

 slight greenish sheen. Inter-scapulary region, back and 

 lower parts si eel-black." 



Reichenow (Vug. A£r.) gives wings as 152 to 154 mm. 

 A specimen from Loanda, in the Tring collection, has a wing 

 of 152 mm. Another from the Lower Congo, and now in 

 the British Museum^ has a wing also of 152 mm. 



So this race is as small as slieUeyi, from which it differs 

 in its dark steel-blue mantle, much darker wings and wing- 

 coverts, and darker tail an 1 upper tail-coverts. The under 

 parts are also much darker than in sheUei/i. 



Besides being at once distinguished from A. a. apus and 

 jyeJiinensis on size alone, the mantle of toulsoni is both darker 

 and bluer than either of the two former races. 



(Jypselus niansce Reichenow (J. f. 0. 1887, p. 61), from 

 Kagehi (S.W. of the Victoria Nyanza), is said to only differ 

 from Cypselus rilppelli of von Heuglin (Orn. N.O.-Afr.) by 

 its smaller size, wing 150 mm. Now Cypselus rilppelli is 

 the same as Apus a^quatorialis (v. Miiller), a distinct species 

 and nothing to do with the Apus apus-gvo\x\). 



Apus kittenhergeri Madarasz (Arch. Zool. 1910, p. 77), de- 

 scribed from Ngare Dowash near Shirati on the south-east 

 shores of the Victoria Njanza, is said to connect the 

 a^quatorialis-gvoup with the Ajnis ajnis-gronp. Original 

 description — " Back black with brownish sheen. Lores 

 bltick. Throat greyish-white, lower throat grey-black with 

 spots or bars. Under tail-coverts with whitish edgings. 

 VVing 175 to 180 mm." The bird in any case does not 

 appear to belong to the Apus apus-group. 



I*f it were not for the fact that Rothschild and Hartert 

 had found Apus murinus hrehmorum breeding alougside 

 Apus apus apus in Algeria, the niuriims-gronp could only be 



