133 [Vol. xliii 



specimens with dark coloration and rufons lores from Zan- 

 zibar and Mombasa as Argya heuglini, and, believing that 

 Gondokoro specimens were like the latter, he quoted 

 Heuglin's name as a synonym, because the name rufescens 

 was preoccupied, but Gondokoro examples are not separable 

 from true Abyssinian rubiginosa. 



In Proc. Zool. London, 1895, p. 488, Sharpe stated that 

 he had learnt from Reichenow's Vog. Deutsch O.-Afr. 

 that Heuglin had already renamed his bird A. rufula^ 

 and, recognizing that his East African dark rufous-lored form 

 was different, he renamed the latter A. saturata, because, as he 

 stated, he had renamed the Gondokoro form heuglini; this view, 

 however, cannot be taken, because Sharpe gave a clear descrip- 

 tion of the Mombasa form and erroneously quoted Heuglin's 

 name as a synonym, without having seen it. This was 

 perfectly recognized by Zedlitz (Journ. f. Orn. 1916, p. 103) 

 and by Sclater and Praed (' Ibis,' 1918, p. 692). 



Sharpe (Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1895, p. 488), when dis- 

 cussing Dr. Donaldson Smith's birds from Western Somali- 

 land, had only one adult specimen, a male, which was later 

 on (' Ibis,' 1901, p. 662) described as a new species, " Argya 

 sharpii/' by Ogilvie-Grant and Reid. It is in beautiful 

 fresh plumage and does not differ in any way from typical 

 rubiginosa, except by its large size, the wing measuring 

 96'5 mm. As the specimens collected by Erlanger and 

 Hilgert in the same country, and all others from North 

 Somaliland, do not differ from typical rubiginosa, the type of 

 A. sharpii is probably only an abnormally large specimen, 

 a giant. Messrs. Sclater and Praed regretted that they 

 could not compare the type of Argya sharpii and that it 

 was not to be found in Philadelphia, where the bulk of 

 Dr. Donaldson Smith's first Somali collection is said to be ; 

 but Lord Rothschild bought the collection catalogued by 

 Sharpe, I. c, with the exception of the types of the species 

 described by Sharpe and a few others, which are, I think, 

 all in the British Museum. It was from Tring that the 

 type of A. sharpii was lent to Mr. Ogilvie-Grant, who was, 

 of course, aware of its whereabouts. 



