110 EINAR LÖNNBERG, BIRDS. 



It was also a common bird in bush at Escarpment station, and every morning sonie 

 Poliospiza were seen there in company with Lagonosticta brunneiceps ruberrima picking 

 food outside a negro hut. 



Poliospiza albifrons (Sharpe). 



Rchw. III, p. 257. 



The first specimen of this bird was shot in a tree standing among dense bush at the 

 edge of a forest near Escarpment station. It was a male with swelled testicles as early 

 in the year as 13 /i. Somewhat låter I obtained other specimens at the edge of the forest 

 near Meru borna, and in a tree standing isolated in a shamba near Kutu. It appears to 

 be perfectly arboreal in its habits. 



All my specimens are white on the forehead and thus typical albifrons. The question 

 whether the birds from Kilimanjaro with entirely brownish-black forehead, and which have 

 been named kilimensis by Richmond, deserve to be regarded as a separatesubspecies,or 

 not has been debated. Recently Ogilvie Grant x has pointed out that birds of the kili- 

 mensis-type »from the Mau Escarpment, Eldoma Ravine, and Nandi» are rather larger 

 t han typical examples of albifrons having the length of wing in males »from 3,35 to 3, v 

 inches» 2 (85 to 93 mm.) and in a female 3,2 inch. (81,2 mm.). The length of wing of the 

 albifrons-sTpecimens of the present collection amounts to 83 mm for the males and 82 mm. 

 for the female. This shows that as far as the males are concerned there is a difference 

 between the minimum of kilimensis and the maximum of these albifro?is-s'pechnens, 

 although this difference is not very great. A specimen from Kilimanjaro in the R. Nat. 

 Hist. Museum in Stockholm has the forehead uniformly brownish black as kilimensis 

 ought to have, 3 only with a few tiny white feathers above the nostrils. As far as my ma- 

 terial is concerned there appears to be nothing speaking against Grant's opinion about 

 the distinctness of the two forms, but more than geographic races or subspecies of oneand 

 the same species they cannot be. 



In this connection I wish to draw attention to how very closely Poliospiza albifrons 

 and P. a. kilimensis resemble the members of the genus Rhynchostr uthus in general appear- 

 ance and general pattern of colouration. The only difference worth speaking of is the 

 shape of the tail, and this difference can hardly be admitted to be of generic value. 



Spinus citrinelloides frontalis Rchw. 



Rchw. III, p. 274. 



Among bushes and herbs at a farm outside Nairobi, and in grassy places near Fort 

 Hall. An adult male shot at the latter locality the last day of March had swelled testicles. 



The yellow frontal band is differently developed in different specimens but in all 

 the yellow eyebrow-stripe is very broad. 



1 Träns. Zool. Soc. Vol. XIX, part 4, p. 307. 



2 It must be deplored that the international metric system not yet has been adopted by all British ornithologists! 

 :! Tliis specimen is by mistake described by Sjöstbdt as the young of Amblyospka unicolor in Wiss. 



Krgebn. d. Schw. Zool. Kilimandjaro Exp., Vögel, p. 123. 



