Vol. xliii.] 98 



(2) Prtonops concinnata ochracea Lynes, 

 Bull. B. 0. C. xli., Oct. 1920, p. 18. 



Cancellation. 



From a further series of 10 specimens collected in F'Cordofan 

 it appears that the form described as P. c. ochracea is not 

 constant. 



Typical P. concinnata is in general terms a combination of 

 black, white, and grey. 



Five Darf ur birds collected are more or less true to type, 

 but in 12 from drier, as a rule more red-sandy, Western 

 Kordofan, there is a variable tendency for ochraceous and 

 brovi^n tints to replace white and greys, and (as will be 

 observed in the specimens) this tendency is expressed in high 

 degree in P. c. ochracea. On the breast and tail some of 

 the ochraceous tint is certainly due to stain, but about the 

 head and hind neck the browns and ochres are certainly 

 pigmental, and analogous to the heritable sandy pigments of 

 many desert-forms, and evidently also irrespective of sex and 

 age (vide family-party of 5 from among the specimens). 



Souiewhat analogous variations of colour appear to have 

 been found by Mr. Van Someren in other species of Prionops 

 in Kenya Colony [vide Nov. Zool. xxix. p. 109, April 1922). 

 The point is worth further investigation^ but since it is now 

 evident that no aggregate of birds answers to the description 

 of P. c. ochracea, the name " ocliracea'^ is best cancelled, and 

 all specimens from Kordofan and Darfur referred to the 

 typical form P. concinnata iSundev. 



Count Nils Gyldenstolpe sent the following descripiion 

 of the adult male of Cri/ptospiza shelleyi Sharpe : — 



When Sharpe (Bull. Brit. Ornith. Club, xiii. p. 21, 1902) 

 described his Cryptospiza shelleyi the type-specimen was 

 considered to be a male. The type was evidently the only 

 specimen available at the time, and had been collected on 

 Ruwenzori by one of Jackson's or Archer's native collectors. 

 It had, however, been wrongly sexed, and is an undoubted 

 female, which in every respect agrees with females obtained 



