12 ARKIV FÖR ZOOLOGI. BAND 9. NIO 14. 



forming with certainty my own opinion, I cannot help ha- 

 ving some doubts concerning the supposed identity. 



46. Indicator minor Steph, — 1 $ ^^/i, Donya Sabuk. 



47, Lybius seiiex Reichenow. — J" $ Vs, ef ? Va, 1 

 unsexed ^Va» 1 ? ^V^j Donya Sabuk. 



It was of great interest to obtain such a fine series of 

 a bird which appears to be known hitherto only from a few 

 specimens. Obviously Donya Sabuk is situated about the 

 centre of its area of distribution. Kibwesi (Gurney) is the 

 southernmost point where it has been found, Ikanga is the 

 type locality, and upper Luazomela (Lönnberg) N. E. of 

 Kenia the northernmost, and finally it has also been col- 

 lected at Nairobi (Percival). Reichenow himself had some 

 doubts about this species and says (Vögel Afrikas II, p. 123): 

 »Vielleicht ist sogar L. senex das letzte Alterskleid der Art.» 

 [viz. L. alhicauda]. There cannot be any doubts now about 

 L. senex being a constant form. If it was not, there ought 

 to have been in this series at least some approximation to 

 L. alhicauda, but that is not the case. On the contrary there 

 is a very good proof that L. senex in the first adult plu- 

 mage at once assumes such a colouration as Reichenow's 

 diagnose describes, and as I have pictured.^ This proof is 

 the female of the present collection, shot 7^- It is evidently 

 a young bird in its first phimage as the brownish tint of 

 the dark (blackish) parts indicates, but especially the whit- 

 ish shaft-streaks, resp. small apical spöts of the wing-coverts 

 and scapulars. Nevertheless in spite of its youth it has head, 

 neck, flanks, lower side, rump, and tail with its upper and 

 lower coverts white, with the only exception that the tail 

 feathers, especially the outer ones, are edged with dusky. 

 It is consequently quite clear that L. senex already in its 

 first plumage has the lower parts white and thus from the 

 beginning absoJutely differs from L. alhicauda. On the other 

 hand, I think that all the white-headed forms of Lyhius are 

 closely related and substitute each other in certain regions. 



The amount of black on the back varies to a certain 

 degree. In one of the old females it forms only a 22 mm. 



1 K. Vet. Akad. Handl. Bd. 47 N:r 5 Pl. 4. The artist has perhaps 

 made the naked parts round the eye too bluish in this figure. 



