Vol. 5, p. 383-384. August 10, 1931. 



Occasional Papers 



OF THE 



Boston Society of Natural History. 



THE TANG AN YI KAN FORM OF ANTHREPTES 

 ORIENTALIS. 



BY HERBERT FRIEDMANN. 1 



In his account of the range of the Violet-backed Sunbird, 

 Sclater (1930, p. 710) writes that it occurs from the ' . . . 

 Upper White Nile, east through northern Uganda, the greater 

 part of Kenya Colony, and southern Abyssinia to Somaliland.' 

 He does not mention Tanganyika Territory at all, but the species 

 occurs south as far as Dodoma on the central railway line. The 

 Dodoma birds are, however, very different from typical orientalis 

 or from neumanni (which is only doubtfully distinct from the 

 nominate form) . The Tanganyika birds are without a name and 

 may be known as 



Anthreptes orientalis barbouri, subsp. nov. 



Type. — Mus. Comp. Zool. no. 134345; adult female, collected at Dodoma, 

 Tanganyika Territory, December 7, 1918, by Arthur Loveridge. 



Subspecifw characters. — Similar to orientalis but the female much larger, 

 the male slightly larger (but matched in wing and tail length by large examples 

 of orientalis); both sexes with longer, stouter bills than the nominate form. 



Measurements. — Type (female): culmen 21 mm. (as against 17 mm. in 

 orientalis), wing 65 mm., tail 51 mm.; male: culmen 20.5 mm., wing 70 mm., 

 tail 54 mm. 



Range. — Known only from the type locality. 



Remarks. — Grote (1921, p. 133) records orientalis, from the 

 Usambara Mountains, but I assume his birds arc A. longuemarei 

 neglectus since he states that they are not pure white below but 

 are washed with grayish or creamy on the underparts. The 

 adults of barbouri (no young birds seen) are pure white below. 



I agree with van Someren (1922, p. 201) that orientalis and 

 longuemarei are specifically distinct, although closely related. 



1 Published by permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 



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