on the birds of north and central darfur. taxo-nomic appendix –part iii-x

346 Admiral H. Lynes on the [Ibis,

Brattta hutchinsi. 10 adult males. Wing 390-455 (419); culinen 34-45 (39.4) ; tarsus 68-86 (77 ) ; mid-toe and

Branta catiodensis canadensis. 10 adult males. Wing 418-527 (500.6) ; culmen 47-58 (52.4) ; tarsus 76-98 (92.3) ; mid-toe and claw 77-106 (97.3).

Branta canadensis occidentalis. 4 adult males. Wing 433-495 (465.7) ; culmen 48-51 (48.7) j tarsus 86-99 (92.2) : niid-toe and cli~w 83-95 (87.2).

claw 67-85 (73.5).

P1. VII. illustrates typical skins of adults of : 1. Branta canadensis occidentalis. 2. Branta hutcliinsi. 3. Branta minima. 4. h a n t a bernicla.

The last is introduced to show its size relative to Branta miriinaa.

XIV.--On the Birds of North and Central Darfur. Tax+ By ADMIRAL HUBERT LYNES, nomic Appendix.-Part I.

C.B., C.M.G., M.B.O.IJ.

(Plates VII1.-X.)

IN my account of the birds of North and Central Darfur, I promised* to explain in an Appendix my reasons for having published determinations of a few of our specimens somewhat out of' line with what had hitherto been in general acceptance. This I now do for all the species concerned except the Uisticolae.

Seeing that little useful could be done by a small incursion into it, I am now engaged in an attempt to review the whole of that group. Thanks to cordial help from our colleagues abroad, nearly all of whom have been able to send me the type-specimens out of their museums, from Lord Rothschild and Dr. Hartert, who have given me the whole of the Tring

* Ibis, 1924, p. 649.

1926.J Bird.$ o j North untl Central llarfur. 347

collection to put nlongsidr. :hat of tlie British Muwuni, iind from our Editor and others, this rather formidable venture progresses, I think, well, and I hope to be able to offer the first part oE the review for our Ju ly ' Ibis.'

The contents of the present contribution are as follows :-

Prefatory Remarks .................................................. 347 Clessifiaation of Ge 369

Psga..

(Map 13.) ...................................................... 376

.................................... 392 15.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

,, ,, African Grey-headed S p a ~ o w s (Passer g r i s e u ~ etc.).

Note on Genus Hypochera. ... ,; Pyte l ia melba citerior .............................................. 399 ,, Pyromelana hordacea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............ 401 ,, Muscicapa (Aleeonax) qa3nbag.z .............................. 401 ,, Crag-Martins (Ptyonoprogne) ........................................ 402

Map 8. Africa. Avifaunal subdivieions. 7

,, 9. Africa. Physical. ,, 10. Africa. Political.

Plate VIII. I ,, 11. Africa. Vegetation. J 1 Plate IX. Map 12. Genus Umginth.us. Distribution,

Map 14. African Grey-headed Sparrows. ,, 13. African House-Sparrows. Distribution.

,, 15. Genus Cercontsla. Distribution in Africa. }Plate X. Distribution.

Prefatory Remarks.

The classifications are offered with the idea OF their helping to make the groups of birds concerned, their affinities and distribution better understood than hitherto ; except in one or two respects, which I will esplain, there is nothing very novel in the inode of treatment, the plan Eollowed being merely the custoinary and necessary one of bringing up to date older classifications by meails of recently acquired knowledge.

SVBSIWXES. I n discriminating between species and suhspecies I have

endeavoured to follow tlie general principles of Mr. F. M. Chapman's excellent " Criteria for tlie Determination of Sub- species ...... (Auk, xli. 1924, pp. 17-29); that is, treating

348 Admiral H. Lyiies on the [Ibis,

.“each case on its merits, basing conclusions on due consideration of all Rvailable pertinent evidence ” rather than following either of the ‘ I two general rules in more or less current use.”

Mr. Chapman’s thesis is costnopolitan, but as the examples he selects to mike his points itre of American birds, 1 should like to mention a f e w aspects of the case drawn from a study of soint! A€rican birds, i n order to illustrate in a general way soine of the cases concerned in this paper. For repetition wliich cannot be avoided I can only ask to be forgiven, and plead that, there is very little in thet pitper that is not well worth repetition.

The following are prominent among the cases that hxve to be provided for with a suitahle mode of treatment *, and refer to resident birds only :-

(a) The very cominon one of intergradation of external characters, little by little. Geographical variation in its most obvious form ; this touche9 several of the subjects in m y classifications- UrRginthus, Passer griseus, for example. No further remarks are necessary, except to explain the slight novelty of treat>meiit which I have adopted in order to show proportion ; this follows.

(6) Not greatly different, and also easy of recognition as nothing more than eiinple geographical variation, is that in which two very slightly different forms occur near one another ; but tho transition is more or less abrupt t. Whether, if there is a small gap between their respective ranges, it may be ascribed to the intervention of some obvious natural barrier, or no such reason is apparent, or the two forms are found to occur somewhat indiscriminately over a narrow neutral zone $ ; from their strong reselnL1:ince to one another, ’ That is, suppasinK there to be enough material to ~ ~ p p l y the facts.

Of course it is often quite a different proposition when it comes t o I‘ placing ” a newly-discovered bird, or birdrr, from an iaolated or new locality, or when the birds themselves and their distribution are very little known.

t Some examples for the Sudanese arid belt were named on p. 766, Ibis, 1926, under (6).

3 Not at all uncommon; Cisticola rwficeps is one, the ne~rrtl zone being R t the Nile.

I 926.1 Birds OJ North and Central Ilarjiir. 349

and other considerations, such as noling the style of chnnge in the species in other parts of it$ raiige, their sub,p s ecific relationship may be called practically obvioue. In present practice a case even more common than (u) ; but it is safe to guess only so, because in many cases exploratioti and colleating have so far been insufficient to supply the intermediate forms that probably exist. For the latter reason alone no review of' the changrs in a species ranging over most of the Continelit can well be expected to be free at all its poiiits from a case of this sort for inany a long clay. I t recurs niore or less througliout the present classifications.

(c) That in which t w o obviously riearly related forms occur quite close to one another, or even with ranges that on the map overlap one another (whicli is not always the same thing as the t w o forms being actually alongside one another), and present differences wlicli, though no greater than tha t which cumulative effect of variation often produces in species a t the opposite ends of a wide range, are considerably greater than what one would expect to be due merely to the causcs-whatever they may be-promoting geographical variation, judging from other species in a cotnparatively sinall district.

Tllnstrations from among my present subjects are the House-Sparrows and Passer gongon~nsix, which seetii to m e decidedly difficult of treatment.

(d) Also difficult of' treatment, assuming, of course, that in classifying such birds the aim is x higher one than merely to group them up i n a convenient way for reference ; that in which two slightly tliferent kinds occur in widely separated places with nothing like them in between. The large pap in distribution, say of half the Continent, may be diic either obviously to lack of sdtable environment in i t or to no apparent cause ; the ground in between h n s been well worked and no connecting links have been found. The case of Passer naotitensis and Passer c*ordofanicus furnishes an illustration among my present subjects, and, inter alia, it is very pertinent to certain other '' arid " bird-forms inhabiting tlie widely eeparated Sudaneae and the south-west arid districts of Africa. Mr. Chapman ( t o m cit .) gives his

350 Admiral H. Lynes on the [Ibis

opinion as to how some cases analogous to this are properly treated as subspecies, illustrating it Iiy the Horned Larks (Otocoyys etc.), but, as he stiys, each case must be treated on its merits.

'l'lia '; Formenkreise " of our German colleagues, I believe, presents such matters from another point of view, tmt I have not yet breii able to study i t proprArly ; however, 131.. Stiese- Inann teile me that lie will read :L paper on it at the forth- coniing Ornithological Congress, and I am sure that too will greatly help townrds putting us more in line in these difficulties of classification.

How SUBSPECTER HAVE BEEN TREATED IN TEE CLASSIFICATION.

The classifications are those comidered suit:rble for general ornithology, i. e . for all ordinary purposes, for i t check-list like the ' Systems Arium Etiriopicarum,' and so forth : that is their purpose. Greater subspecific refiiienient is necessary for the complete study oi' certain special problenis, but for all ordinary purposes wonld, I t h i i i l i , defeat the purpose of the classifications for grner.:il use, by niaking thuni too corn pl ex.

I n any case, no matter what the end in view, when it, comes to classifying the geographical races of a species with an uiibrolren are:: ot' diJtribut>ion, consistent treatment deinands the creation o€ some arbitrary standard of recognition ; or, to put it in other words, when the transition t'rom one form to others i n other districts is gradrml, a i d every sort of intermediate is f ~ u n d , tlie selection of the subspecific units in a c:lassification cannot but be a rnntter of convention. The standard itdopted niust suit the purpose ot' tlie claesifi- cat,ion : if the standard is not considered acceptable, then the classificritioii itself must be modifid 01. rejected.

I believe tliat the study of geographical i 'orm, comparatively new :IS it is, is suHiciently atlvnnced to show tile desirability of having some sort of generally accepted standard for this phase of classification ; but however tliiit may be i n other parts of t h e world, in North Tropical

1926. J Birds of Nortlr and Central Dwfur. 35 E

Africa iE not throughout the whole Ethiopian Region,. where ecology is so largely the key to the dibtribution of its- geographical forms, one is constantly finding the need of' it.

This is the nature of the ever-recurring problem ; rexders of Part 11. of my paper will already have reinarireti how it pervades the relationships of the birds of DsrEur mitb other parts of North Tropical Africa.

In a series of sprciinens f'roin districts A and 13, any person of' averiige perception, wi th no other aid t1r:tn tlie eye to gauge the colour-tints i l t i t l :I millimetre measure f o r the size, can correctly separate '30 p9r cent. or more of them on the table according to their respective districts. Everyone agrees that the two are good geographical races and iiiust be given two different subspecific names. Specimens from between districts A and €3 are found to be hterniediate in every degree ; froin here most of' thein nearer the A race, froiii there nearer the S ; from elsewhere about Iralf-way between the two ; from almost anywhere in the intermediate territory occasional examples are to be found inseparable from the A or B foriris ; and from no localit,y in i t m e more than about 50 per cent. clearly sep:mhle froin either oiie or the other. But while everyone agrees to tlie facts, every sort of contrwversy arises over the taxonomy, culminating in natural consequence over the nonienclatnIe, whether inore races have been named than ciili be recognized o r accepted, and so forth-taxonomic discussions not always constructive, and which often leave one in doubt which opinion to follow, and to wonder whether the diH'erence of opinion is not due rather to difference of' treatment of the subject than to any doubt about the observed facts.

For illustration take Passw giiwzis, and refer to the classitication proposed on p. 382.

Fourteen years ago three races, eritrew, nruwia,rni, and swainsoni *, were described as occurring i n a part of Eritrea about the size of Oxfordshire.

On the one hand, there could be 110 doubt about the * J. f . 0. 1911, pp. 33 etc. (the no nclatnre lins latterly been

readjusted).


existence uf differences which caused so expert an ornithologist as Count Zedlitz to separate the three forms; on the other, it was difficult to understand how three different subspecies could occur in so circumscribed an rirea.

Increiised knowledge and study of the birds and geography sf this and the surrounding countries now shows that in Erit,rea the forms of Posser grisezts and a number of other species are intermediate between those of the Abyssinian Plateau arid the British Sndan, and that fha pliysical geography of Eritrea is also of ;in intermediate character.

I n the light of this knowledge the difficiilty is explained : ,just us one might have expected, t;il;en as :,L whole (i. e. as shown by series of specimens), the mount:iin birds are nearer to, so in^ inseparable from, the grey-breasted bird dominant in Abyssinia, those on the Sudan side of the mountains inore like t lie white-broasted bird dominant in the Sudan, :md on the Red Sea side rather niore like the Abyssinian ; hnt froin almost any part of Eritrea come .occasional examples inseparable ~ O I I I one or otlier of the two dominant forms, and nowliere are more than about .50 per cent. quite like one another. Any person of average perception can separate the two dominant forins correctly by their colour-differences ; and their separate identity has ,never been questioned since the study of geographical races began, whereas the validity, appropriateness, distribution,

.and everything .else to do with intermediate nettmami have always been controversial.

And the case is clearly typical of what occurs with many .other continuous ranging species in Eritrea, in North Tropical and other sufficiently worked parts of Africa, and probably all over the world.

I n the hope of not adding to what has been non-constructive in sonie of these discussions about subspecies, I have aelected three main principles a s the governing factors of my classifications ; they :ire as follows :-

Factor I. postulates t,hat one single classificiition cannot he sufficiently refined lor t h e study of every special subject

~ 9 2 6 . 1 Birds ofiYorth anti Central Darfur. 353

without making i t too involved to fulfil its main function, which is certainly that of facilitating the study of general ornithology ; and that when special subjects are to be studied, a inucli more refined classification inay often be required.

For illustration refer again to Passer griseus, p. 382. For a11 purposes of general ornithology the races griseus and .swainsoni are considered sufficient, in the north ; but if P. griseus is to be studied for inquiry into, say, the effect of local envirounient on its form, mxt.vanni and even eritrem will be wanted ; Darfur birds also, will hilve to be wparated, because they run rather larger :rnd p l e r than the aggregrites on either side of t.heiu, nnd so on ad lib.: 110 aggregate, however small, showing recognizable distinctive characters hearing on ttie particular subject, but will Itaye to be separated a n d studied. Virtually for such a purpose the classification o f P . griseus wiil h a v e to be carried down to the limit of rrfiiiement-only, of course, no reviewer so refining it will require full-blown scientific iiaiues for any of his minor units ; he will be sure to want all the scientific names which have already been given to separable aggregates, b u t the other groups he will probably distinguish by nouns, adjectives, etc. in his own language, like ‘‘ P. griseits t i t :

Darfur,” and so forth; at least that would be customary and reasonable.

Factor 11. assunies a standard of acceptance for the suL- specific units of the standard classification or checli-list, the one which is intended for general ornithological purposes. When it is merely a matter of perception of the characters, o r alleged characters, history shows that when an average person, without Lias from the locality lzibels of specimens, can correctly pick out or separate about 75 per cent. or more, but not a lesser proportion, of the birds of rr. series froin any others, general acceptance of the forms and their names follow 8.

This, therefore, is the standard * I have adopted throughout

* Referred to later as the ‘‘ separate 76-per-cent.” standard, for want of a better term which will be sufficiently descriptive.

354 Admiral TI. Lynes on the [Ibis,

for tlie subspecific units in m y classification of those species H hose distribution may he called fairly well known, ant1 are seen to be contiriuous with different doiitinarit forms here and there and intermediate ones in between them.

As to nomenclature, treated in the uwal way as synonyms are naines which have heen given to, or proposed for, races whose alleged characters are considered to be only individuirl or due to age or state of ~iluiiiage, or tire to me indist,inguisti-. ahle, doing which need no more imply superiorit.! of judguient on illy part thau adiriissiuii ot’ colour-perception of only averiige quality or inferior to that of the original xutlior. Such names, however, are few coinp;ired with those of t h e intermediates, which I hold ought not to t)e--as is customary when bringing a classification up to date-shuffled into the nomenclature as synonyms of the nearest units when they are clearly seen to belong to interniediates; P O 1 have adopted a treatment which claims to incorporate thein with equal ease, and with the advanhge of placing the bird aggregates they represent so as to show, instead of obscuring, their relationship with the dominant. races or subspecific units.

The classifications themselves, together with the treatment of the subject * iri the previous part of this paper, make further explanation ahout these subspecific units and ‘ititer- mediates unnecessary.

But it will, of course, be remarked, if not objected, that this plan, however acceptable i t may be for comparatively well-known species, csnuot for ohvious reasons be followed for the treatment of subspecies when the distribut,ion of the species is little known ; when there are gaps or even pre- sumptive gaps in i t ; when the available series of spccimans a re too sinall to provide definite conclusions ; and very often so, too, when one or a few birds from a new loexlity have to be ‘‘ placed,” a term I take to imply named and fitted into the standard classification.

pp. 773-776; * Including remarks on “Fusion of Racial Forms,” ‘Ibis,’ 1925,

1926. J Birds of North and Central Darfur. 355

Very true ; and the consideration8 that have guided my

(a) That for the promotion of the study of geographic races it is desirahle to know ;ill facts beoring on the subject, and thiit therefore the least degrees of observed difference not attributable to individuality, age, wear of plumage, etc. ought to be published ;

{ b ) that no attempt to follow any rule or convention such as the '' separate T5-per-cent. " standard could ever be satisfactory, and that each case tnrtst be considered on its intwits, the guiding principle being to separnte whenever there seems a chance of the fact being iiseful to any branch of ornithology ; and

{ c ) that to facilitirte reference to the separation, scientific naines should be freely given on the ground that such names very often draw attention to, preserve, and invite discussion of the facts where pages of dis- course without names fail to do so,

The latter counsel will not meet with the universal approval, and is clearly one to be followed with discrimination, €or i t ia undeniable that a number of names floating about as it were in a varied literature, waiting to be wheeled into line by some reviewer, i s sp t to become rather unnionageable ; nevertheless the preservation of useful f a d cannot scienti- fically be subordinated to neatness of classifications or other conveniences, and I am glad to believe hhat the free bestowal of racial names has support * from an authority like Dr. Witmer Stone.

* I n the following:--" Nor does it seem t o the speaker that it makes much difference how many subspeciee we list i11 our check-lists or tech- nical systenmtic works, so long a8 they represent real geographic forms, and their acceptance depends wholly upon the degree of difference which they exhibit. . . . . In other words, we shall use in actual prnctiee just as much segregation as suits our purpose." From '' The Ornithology of Today and Tomorrow "-an address delivered before the N u t t d Ornithological Club upon its Fiftieth Anniversary by Dr. Witmer Stone. But the Doctor's thesis covers wide ground and ought to be read in order t o note the context of the remarks I have qaoted; if I have applied them contrary to their author's intention, I hope he will forgive me.

trestiiient of birds in any of these categories are :-


Illustratiotis of how these principles have been applied may be seen in Cercomela, where the whole specific distribution is iaot well known, and full use has beeii made of scientific names f and in Passer griseus and Umyinthus benyalus, where the distributions are fairly well known. These last are cited aa examples of avoiding new scientific names, since the Sparrow's variation in size is seen to be considerable nnd of a local nature, and the tendency to pale coloration is too cominonly-known a chiiracter of birds inhabiting the semi- desert (northern) part of the Sudanese arid belt to cstll for its reiteration, except for particular purposes ; so the Darfur Sparrows have not been given a separate naine, and since only four specimens of Ruby-cheeked Uordon-bleu from the little-lrnown south-eastern part of the Congo Basin are available, they can quite well be referred to tentatively by the descriptive reference-tag '( of Kasongo " until further materiai from that part of Africa shows whether there really is a dominant race there worthy of separation under a regular subspecific name.

Factor 111. regards BS axiomatic the evolutionary nature of progress in classification. At first sight the different treatment of well-known and little-known birds explained under Factor 11. may seem inconsistent,, but when seen in the light of the inevitable truth that by the ordinary process of evolution classifications must alter in all directions as our knowledge ot the birds increases, it is not.

Thus, when bringing the classificiition of a species up to date, the roviewer I I O W finds sufficient material to make its distribution and geographical variations clear enough to distinguish between dominant, intermediate and unrecog- nizable forms Subspecific names liberally bestowed in the past in order to promote inquiry while the species was little known now sort themselves out into those of unit and intermediate forms or merge into synonyms ; and, in like niauner, forms hitherto doubtful which now emerge into clear viRion change their reforence-ttigs for scientific names or surrender them all together, and so on.

For instance, again taking Passer grisezts as BII example,

1926.1 Birds of ATorth and Central 1)arjicr. 357

though the status of the bird-aggregate it represents may have been controversial during the past fourteen years, the name naumanni has served a useful purpose : had it never been given, the fact of its mixed relationship with griseus and abyssinicus might have been overlooked. Now that this is c1e:irly seen, neumanni may conveniently be drafted out of the battle-line into the auxiliary fleet, from the rank of a. subspecific unit in the classification of P. griseus to that of an intermediate, in which lesser r61e, without encumbering general ornithology, i t will still s e r w to illustrate the important fact that the small province of Eritrea has the character OE an avifaunal intermediate between the large Abyssinian Highland and Sudanese Arid districts.

After all. there is scarcely any novelty in this procedure, for to avoid haphazard treatment of the subspecies by selecting their units according to conventional standards when their variety is seen to approach the infinite, and to do so without obscuring the facts, adds no more than a detail of organisation to what is customarily done.

To sum up :- 1. The classifications are meant for general ornithological

purposes ; any greater refinement such as may be necessary for the study of special subjects is considered out of place.

2. The only novelty of treatment aims at introducing a satisfactory comprehension of those species which through continuous specific distribution are seen to have :in infinite variety of geographical variation : iii which case subspecific units w e made of a11 those forins whose characters are recognizable to the extent of a " separate 75-per-cent." convention, meaning those aggregates whose characters are sufficiently inarked for an average person to correctly sepurate 75 per cent. or more from a large aeries of niixed specimens without, bias from their localities ; and subspecific forms less distinguishable are classed as interinedintes under whatever names may have been given to them.

35s Admiral H. Lyiies on the [Ibis,

3. All otlwl- suhspecific forms are t.reat.etl in the customary way, names given to those whose alleged chariicters caiiiiot he perceived or agreed to for other reasons being treated as synonyins, etc., etc.

Anything dogmatic on the subject, besides being useless, woiilil ill becoiiie the pen of one who has worked but litt,le -in taxonoinic fields ; but while disclaitninp the idea that 110

better plan than my own can be invented, I do venture to pay that we field-ornithologists would often find less difficulty

- i l l pliicii1g and giving a satisfactory account of some of our birds if taxonomists could give us an authoritive lead to follow in the phase of geographic:il variation, which hits been the c h i d subject of the foregoing reiuarks.

So with the growth of practice and optimism, one might .even hope for the conversion of that school of naturalists who seein to throw overboard the systeiiiatic study of geographical forms of birds on the ground that i t must llecessnrily lead to the impasse of an infinite variety of

‘names. GENERA.

My proposal to put in the genus Cerconielu, the Eatni1i;ir ,,Chat (familiaris), a bird hit,herto associated either with CFnanthe (Saxicola), Eythropygia, Bessonornis, Luscinka, ALjdon, or Phamicurus, needs some sort of nn explanation, if not an apology ; since, although the scientific flavour * of the generic characters I have put for Cercomela is inore or less up to standard, I cannot translate the habit of “twinkling ” into tnorphological’ terms, and I franltly confess that that habit, which struck me the first inoinent 1 saw sennaarensis in Darfur ns allying it to the other Hock-Chats, is, t o m y mind, as good a reason as any in the definition of the genus .and for the advocacy of my ca%e. SO far as the stability of the habit is concerned, besides

my own personal acqtinin tance with melanura, scotocerca, dubia, and sennaarensis, it is clearly enough indicated by

;* To borrow the nice expreesion of Ur. Witrner Stone in hi8 address t o the Nuttsll Ornithological Club in Jkcember lY23.

1926.1 Birds qf X o r t h and Central Darfur. 359

other writers for some of the otlrer kinds or races; and I see no reason to suppose that i t is not common to all the other races of the species about whose habits no record exists.

So far as I can see, the chief objrction to the proposal is that to accept a mere habit as one of the factors in the definition of any genus is unsatisfactory, because it is a thing that can be scrutinized by comparatively few people, and it is not scientific to take things on trust.

On the other hand, leaving this objection for a moment and keeping to the particular, the advantages claimed for grouping jizmiliariu with the other four species under the old-established name of Cercomela are that the five make a very good little natural group as Rock-Chats, easily understood by anyone meeting with tlie birds alive, and that familiaris is better so placed than in any of the bther six genera hitherto proposed for it, except perhaps Q3nantTte.

So far as Erythroioygia, Bessonornis, Luscinia, and Aedon are concerned, since faniiliaris was placed in one or the other, those groups have passed into general acceptance for other birds with which familiaris has comparatively distant alliance. Phmicurus is more recent, and it is with the Redstarts that fawiiliaris is grouped in Dr. Reichenow’s Viig. Afr., the dominant factor being the red colour of the rump and upper tail-coverts and the same colour in the tail-pattern. But in respect of wing-contour, bill, and leg, to look only a t such external parts as cat] be inspected in a skin, the Red- starts as typified by PA. plmnicurus are really very unlike the Wheatears a s typified by a. cenanthe ; rind in these respects

familiaris is not with Phct.nicurzcs, nor in the matter of sexual colour-difference. and as for the living birds, well, it is not necessary to go RB far as Africa to see the difference between a Wheatear and a Redstart.

So far as the tail and its upper coverts are concerned, in contour, length, and texture of feathers familiaris does not go well with Phcenicuws : the colour-pattern of the former’a tail is seen to be the least stable of all the bird’s colour- characters, since i t exhibits so much individual variation as

81% XI1.-VOL. 11. 2 B

360 Adrnirnl H. Lynes o n the [Ibis,

the species ranges northward ; in the south i t resembles that of one Inditlii Redstart (Ph.,frontaZis), a blue and red bird, not a t all a repreventative member of its group, and in the north only, sonie individuals of furniliccriz have the tail colour- pattern like that of the typical Redstart. Other species, also with spotted young, with whichfumilia& might be put on account of the colour-characters of the rump and tail (alone), are Bessonorriis isabellcz?, some of the Cossyphze, Hernichelidon cinereiceps, and doubtless others, some quite out of court. I do not think that familiaris can be allied to PhQnicurus. There remains QZnanthe. As everyone knows, Qhanthe, as now constituted ut and in general acceptance in the main, can, by selecting one or a f e w characters of external form and colour alone, be split up into a number of genera ; in fact, Mr. Roberts t has given us practical evidence how great are the possibilities in South Africa alone. If we take elnargination of primaries as a character which tilust constitute generic separation, then, in addition to sinuuta, because of its strange second primary, leucura, capistrata, picta, monticola, etc., would have to be separated on account of their emarginate sixth primary, were it not for the fact that in leucopyga the character is seen to be really only :I racial one, North African birds not having it, Sudanese nearly always, Darfur’s always.

Ifwing-contours be taken, it would be difficult to know where to begin or stop, for every gradation is seen between the pointed wing and short first primary of enanthe and the more rounded wing with long first priinary of leucura etc. If sexual colour-difference, then isabellina, leucura, leucopyga, etc., with like sexee; if plain, not spotted young, then leuciira, leucopyga, rnonticola, if‘ not others, would require separation, and so on : there is no more difficulty in sorting out the characters of the Wheatears by a centrifugal process of this kind into a large number of groups with on0 or a few

* As, for instance, in Sharpe’e Hand-List, and even for the nonce including the Cercomela group.

t Ann. Transvaal Mus. viii. part iv. 1922, pp. 228- 232.

2926.1 Birds of North and Cents.al Darfur. 361

species in each group, than there is with the Phylloscopi and many other assemblages which suggest themselves as natural ones and suitable for generic groups, whether through the birds in life or certainly for the most part also in their externd characters-at least that is the presump- t ive evidence of their commonly-accepted classifications. Whether to do this is wise, or whether such a proceeding is going to facilitate comprehension of the birds concerned i n this or a future generation, is a matter of opinion,

I€, instead of splitting to its limit, a centripetal process is carried to excess, as i t can be when only a very few charac- te rs for defining the groiip are taken, numbers of leseer groups like that of which Emargiiaata sitiuata has been made .a representative species, or many others which, as usual, illustrate the truth of the evolutionary principle by merging in to one another, can be " lumped " together until Redstnrts, Ant-Chats (Myr~necociclala), Flycatchers, and even Robins .or other unnatural combinations oan be formed *.

But mnanthe is large, and I think most will agree that it would be it pity to spoil its excellence by increase : and &hill idea hits largely influenced my familiaris proposal, wliicli inalres no dteration to the grouping of Sharpe's Hand-List, except that of shifting Saxicola, nos. 1 to 5, p . 175 (the familiaris group), over to the opposite page with the Cercomela. This, to my mind, is best of all ; but if it does not ineet with general approval, then I think it will b e next best t,o inakko no :ilt,eration a t xl1,and leave familiaris with a n a n t h e (i. 0. Saxicola) ; and if a very close external sepemblance beiween species is wanted, what is required will be found by cornpiiring the paler races of familiaris with . a n a n t h e chrysopygia, or, for the matter of that, except i n &lig, with E . sinuuta, but cortainly not with Phce~ticurus.

With regard to the objection of putting R habit as one of $he items in the definition of a genus, I would have been well content to quote some oracle as to the extent to which

* See Tarsiger chrymus, Hernichelidon ciwereiceps, etc. 2 B 2


a proposal OE this sort is permissible, which, though largely followed in practice, greatly as, I believe, to the benefit of making our groups n,itural and not artificial ones, is to a great extent done sub $*osa, but I have not been able to find one outside of i,he standard text-books. The inore recent discusrions on generic matters, such as those recorded in Bull. B .O. C. xxxv. 1915, p. 61, and Ann. Triinsvual Mus. viii. 1922, p. 187, have inore particularly concerned the general position of generic groups in classification, and the question whether or not a “ ren~tissunce” is desirable in the size of groups which ought to be recognized. Personally, I am not of‘ the persnasion which sees light only in a “ terrible upheaval ” of present practice as set out in nearly 8111 our standard works ; that is, if a classification and its associated uornenclature are to place before the mind in a clear manner the relationships that exist between birds in order to facilitate and advance a knowledge o f them *.

For the point at issue, therefore, I will refer to Dr. Elliott Coueb’s well-known ‘ Bipld and General Ornithology’ : the general principles of a uiorpho1ogic;il cla~sification as therein set out do not seem to irie to differ essentiallj from the saiue in subsequent H crks of other uutltors.

So far a s I have always understood, i t is generally accepted :-

(a) That of all the grades iti use, the only one that approaclics to being t i finite conception, and that only becuusa it tippears to be more or less so during a number of human generatious, is the species t, and that, therefore, any groups selected for tlie formation of the generic and higher grades, viz, Genera, Families, and Orders, and their sub-grrrdes, from tho accepted principle of evolution cnn only be on an integrading nature.

(b ) That therefore classification, so far :IS it concerns these grades,-being in essence an atteiript to express in a

* Sir Joseph Hooker on the “ Classification of Plants.” t Is not that also the eriseuce of whbt Mr. Loomis states in hie recent

letter on the “ LAst Phase of the Subspecies ” ? (Ibis, 1920, pp. 964-966).

u 926.1 Birds oj’ Nortli untl Ceiit?*al Bailf’ur. 3G:t

reasonably sinall number of finite tllings, defiiiitiond and naiiies, a number of things that are not finite, asserublages sf birds whose characters grade into one mother (not only those of the genus, which is the most deb;ited),-inust of meocssity be a matter of conmiition, or, as more usually expressed, one of convenience *. That is t o say, unless some quite new noniencIatoriaI system is invented, such as the 4‘ symbolic forinulution ” hinted at hy Dr. Coues (1). 119), hy which each character or 1.init factor can he expressed in eelem en tal propor tio 11 8 .

( c ) That (letting alone accessory criteria aiding deterwina- tion, which come into a different category) the characters for definition of the specifc grade are to be found exclusively i n the exterior parts of birds, skins providing the iiecessary material ; for that of tlie Orders and Faniilies, in ii gencrnl wily, the bony skeleton and important tissues respectively, .the characters being derived entirely froin laboratory iriutrrial.

(d) That therefore, since no parts of the organism innst be excluded from consideration, all having some phylogenetic value, and since the genus grade has, as it were, to bridge .over the gap between the specie8 and itmlf, the ch~irncters which logically should contribute to its definition are to be soiiglit among both external and internal parts of birds.

( e ) That therefore among the characters available for the .defiiiition of genera, that is as indicative of collective relationship in that grade, are those of forin and coloiir perceptible iu skills, or sucli as can be perceived in thein as colicerrling the bird’s growth from ahick to adult, moults, and so forth ; of obher external or semi-external characters available for the definition of species as nre less easy of study in the laboratory owing to the difficulty of preserving them .in their naturiil condition, like those o€ the palate and soft

* And, iucidentallj therefore, to any that auy bird ‘‘milet be” septmted generically from any other one, because the two differ in .one or two aharacters of external form, is technically incorrect.

364 Admiral H. 1,ynes on the [Ibis,

parts, texture of skin *, etc.; and of internal characters from among the development and form of the lesser muecles t and tissues, such as, although not found to be of sufficient impor- tance for the higher grades, may perhaps be found related to peculiarities of habits etc.

Eggs and nests of course claim consideration, and are indeed now among the most popular “ accessories ” ; song, which serves to distinguish between some species of birds (in Cisticola, for example) far better than do their skins, may be trandatsble into morphological terms-in the future, perhaps : and so forth, The list is by no means exhaustive, but is sufficient to illustrate the point which I wish to make, viz. that in theory the characters available for giving definition to such groups as common consent shall agree to cull generic ought by no means to be confined to those which can he perceived through a study of skins and spirit or other laboratory specimens.

Also, we have i t that in theory “ morphology is the safest, indeed the only safe clue to natural affinities, and the Bey to all rational classification . . . . ” ; and that statement of Dr. Coues . remains presumably in general acceptance, since no classifications of birds are being promulgated which purport to be otherwise.

But like all high ideals requiring for their fnlfilinent the perfcction of human knowledge, it can, OE course, in practice only be partly attained, and by following its counsel with discretion. That is probably obvious, and needs tilo further comment; but 1 wish to draw cattention to its pertinonce in the niatter of genera, for if, as it seems in theory, the ingredients for classifying in all the other gradcls concern only qualities derivable from post-mortem esamination?, the

* Seldom, if ever, used, and yet anyone who skins a White’s Thrush (Turdus (Geocichla) dnurna U U T P U S ) cannot fail to wonder why the tissue- paper4ike texture of its ekin should not carry a9 much weight in that bird’s claim to generic separation from Tu~dus RS its different wing colour-pattern etc.

f For example perhaps, the nature of the entotyrnganic muscle in the Snipe (p. u. Workman, Ibis, 1907, pp. 614-621).

The skin is just a8 niuch t~ part of the organism.

1926.1 Birds 01 North and Central Darfur. 365

genus is the only one likely to be available for characters of life, or is a t least the one most suited to the inclusion of such characters as we are not yet in a position to translate into morphological terms, that is, many of their habits.

To the tield-ornithologist the fact ofa Hedstart (‘shivering ” its tail makes just as much for the bird being “ a Redstart ” and not a Wheatear or a Robin as its inere colour or colour- pattern. Why, then, should not the character be equally as worthy of consideration ? And the same rnay be said of the Rock-Chat’s “ twinkling ” habit. Perhaps if an expert anatomist were to find that these and other actions of birds were actually translatable into morphological twins as related to srnall peculiaritieq of muscular development, such characters would be accepted con amore as definitive; perhaps, on the other hiind, the perception might baffle human skill. Has anyone yet ntteinpted this, or to find out similar facts about birds’ voices-why a (:row does not sing like a Niglitin- gale, for instance? Meanwhile these and other hahits are facts serving, oftnn very well, to difl’erentiate between many kinds of birds.

That the morphological principle has enabled us to dis- criminate between habits which are only :tn:Jogous and those truly homologous is an assured fact ; but that we are in u position to, as i t were, try to classify any living creatures without reference to their characters of life seems to uie almost impossible, on the face O F it.

Surely, i t cannot be claimed that our ordinary generic groupings of the coiripar:itively well-known birds of the northern world are the result of the rigid application of a morphological principle which reduces their definition to relative lengtlis of tail and wing, and the comparison of characters perceptible only in the dried skins of the birds. Rather, ought not the fact that i i i the main they do represent natural groups and are well suited to present requirements be ascribed much more to ability to answer the question for each species : “ W h i t sort of a bird is i t ” ? and to that having thrown at least a very uonsiderable weight into the scales of determination.

Why not use theiii?


I n thicl connection it is interesting to observe, by com- paring the first and second edition of the ‘ Fauna of British India: Birds,‘ how much progress has been made during the last thirty-five years in grouping the species of that large and dificult assemblage Timeliidz, not by any means only though increased study of the birds’ external characters, but, much more, through a better knowledge of what the living creatnres are like; and by preserving, in the manner characteristic of that ad inirable work, the taxonomic balance between such knowledge iind what has yet been found out about their “ form.”

New and little-known birds from distant parts of the world have, of course, to be placed as well as they can be, just 11s they have in the past : and i f those to whose labours we are mainly indebted for our classifications are given nothing more than dried skins aiid dead material to do their best with, the onus of getting the birds grouped unnaturally is more likely to lie with tliose who have been able to study the living creatures rind kepi. their talent liid *. At the same time it inust be ;tdinittecl that field-ornithologists have provided in the past and coiitiuue to provide a qu:intity of material of this sort, which is little, if a t all, used by taxonomists; and also that, scattered throughout a large ant1 varied literature, there is ti quantity of niorphological knowledge available for classifying in the genus grade-piilatal, muscular, :ind other characters-not taken proper advantuge of. Surely, too, in the puhlications of anatomists such as Huxley, Garrod, Forbes, Sundevall, and Nitzsch, to name only a few of the more illustrious, whose labours have been niainly directed towards the end of classifying the higher griides, there must be a good deal of “afterniath” material available but not used for genera, even, for example, among the facts dio- covered about tongues, which Wayler found such “unruly members ” t as a source of characters for the higher groups.

* Neither perhaps c m it be anid thnt “the common practice of ordinary collectors . . . . to shoot a bird, take off its akin and throw away its charrtcters ” is extinct (ef. Newton, Dict. B., Introd. p. 36).

t Newton, Dict. B., Introduction, p. 50.

1926.1 Bids of North a d Central Darj’ur. 367

It would certainly be a great gain if a systenl could be invented which would provide a more suitable repository for all this kind of material-one, for instance, like tho chemist has in his system of elements; for it is probably correct to say that whatever omission there may be to take full advantnge of this knowledge, in forniing generic groups, arises rather from the difficulty of firrdiag it than in unwillingnesr to apply some of it,

But, to nlake my final point, I do think that when natural groups are clearly indicated hy birds’ habits, very great consideration may wisely be given to the value of .those ch:rracters for inclusion in the definition of their genus, whether or not the habits can be expressed in niorphological terms, unless there is good reason on rnorp1ioll)gicaZ groutids to reject t h e m

Clsssiflcations.

NoTEs.--(u) The distributional maps explain tliemselvcJs, and the general iiirtps (Nos. 8 to 11) are added in order to illustrirts the geographicd text, which is referred niorw to Mr. Chapin’s avifaunul subdivisions than to atlas iioiiieii- aiature.

This is done not only because the style often sirits tlie subject and lends itself to brevity of expresaion, but because it hits proved iiiost instructive and useful in lily account of the birds of Darfur, and is certainly going to be so for tl tu whole Ethiopiaii Eegion *.

As its author ~ a p , the boundary lines are not, exactitudes. I have ventured already to inuke R slight re:idjustuient of the northernitiost ones, and I ratlrer think Dr. van Somereti could mnke some slight improvement in the equatorial parts

* Whether or not this geograpliical nomeuclature suite present-day text-books is another niatter: 1 think the subdivisions are much too young to expect that. But the transposition to atlas nomenclature is nimple-dl the maps 8 to 16 have beeu purposely made so that super- Po-itione of either physical or political geography on any of the distributional iriaps can ensily be made with a piece of traciug-paper.


of East Africa he has worked to such advantage ; but in- spection will show that, as they ure, the subdivisions often give an extremely good guide to the location of dominant, and the boundaries to that of intermediate races, as well, of course, as to those of higher forms and groups.

I am convinced, too, that there is quite enough material at the present moment for co-ordination with these natural subdivisions to not only greatly advance our understanding of the racial variation of birds throughout the Continent, but also to show the real worth of many controversial Yeparations-and consequently, of course, names.

(6) For mapping purposes it is necessary to use symbols instead of name#. Specific names are given index numbers, thus 1, 2, 3 ; names of the subspecific units are indicated b y their specific number with small letter, thus l a , 1 b, 1 c ; and subspecific intermediates as was done in Part II., thus 1 a > l b as nearer to l a thnn 12, ; l a = l h midway between l a and 1 b . When, owing to lack of material in this country it has not been possible to name the race with certainty, the index number of the species only is shown in distribution map.

(c) The subdivisions named as a bird’s range are as far as possible those in which the form is more or less doniin:int ; if the bird is not known to occur further inside a subdivision than just on its borders (as mapped), that division is not named.

(d) ‘The fact of the “ typ. loc.” accompanying the bird’s nanie, i. e . the place where the type-specimen was obtained being sometitries rather remote from where the form is really dominant, is unfortunate, but cannot be helped ; also is i t that sornetirnes the tppe-specimen itself is not as characteristic as could be wished of the aggregate with which knowledge, acquired since the bird’s first discovery, ehows i t to be best placed.

I n the text of the classifications, matter relating to species is in ordinary type, rind in small type where subspecies and intermediates only are concerned.

1926.1 Birds o j ’ f lor th and Central Darfur. 369

The word “African” is used to designate something belonging to Africa proper, i. e . the whole Continent, south of the desert. It is intended to be synonymous with “belonging to the Ethiopian Region less S.W. Arabia and Madagascar,” too inconvenient a term for frequent. use.

The material on which the classifications are based is that in both the British and Tring Museums, to which I have been kindly granted access.

THE CORDON-BLEUS, Genus Ukegintlnis * (see Ibis, 1924, p. 668).

The classification of tlie members of this genus in general use today is based on that of J. f‘. 0. 1911, pp. 604-7, wherein Count Zedlitz has given a concise epitome of Dr. Reichenow’s and his own taxonomic work i n 1911 nnd that of Professor Neuniann in 1905 ; there are a few later additions t.

During tlie past fourteen years, knowledge and material have greatly increased, and revision is opportune, i f not necessary (see, for instance, the rcinarlis of Messrs. Sclater and Praed in ‘ The Ibis,’ $911, p. 4-11, and of Mr. Bannerinan in ‘ The Ibis,’ 1924, p. 270).

The five hundred or YO specimens now in the combined British Museiam and Tring collections probably indicate nearly tlie whole distri1,utioii of tlie genns, a n d with the

* Grmrntina, which is included in Umyinthus by Reichenow, is regarded as a. separate genus.

t Principal related literature outside of the standard books : --Neuui. J.f. 0. 1906, p. 361; Zedl. J . f, 0. 1411, pp. 604-7; Grote, 0 , h L 1911, y. 162, J. f. 0. 1921, p. 414; Mearnr, Siiiith. Miec. Coll. M-ash. Ixvi. no, 20, 1911, p. 6 ; Rcliw. Mitt. Zool. Ihn. Berlin, 1911, p. 228; Scl. 81 Pr. Ibis, 1918, p. 441 ; Snouckaert van Scliauburg, Jaarbei.. Nederl. Vogelk. Deventer, viii. 1918, pp. 51, 56; Hartert, Nov. Zool. xxyi. 1919, pp. 140, 141, and xxviii. 1921, p. 138; van Someren, Nov. Zool. xxix. 1922, pp. 160, ltil; Gmnvili, J. f. 0. 1023, p. 181 Bannerman, Ibis, 19244; p. 270.


exception of Tanganyilia Territory and its adjacent inarches in the Belgian Congo, represent very fairly well all its species and the extent of their geographical variation.

Dr. van Sooieren, with tlic sdvnntage of personal acquaintance with the living birds in that district of varied topography, has recently classified the kinds of Cordon-bleu in Equatorial East Africa.

Altogether there is enougli inateriul for a revised classification, and I propose tlw following :-

Generic characters of structure a n d colou?*.

Accessory. Eggs. X e s f .

Hnbits.

Ho bi t a t .

Range.

Species 1. Urreginthus bengalus

(Ruby-cheeked Cordon- bleu).

As in Cab. Mus. Hein. i. 1881, p. 171; Hchw. vijg. Afr. iii. p. 206.

4 or 5 , pure white. A ball of dry grass, with side entrance-hole, placed in

a bush, or occasionally in the untenanted nest of another Weaver-Finch.

In general those of the many Estrildine Weaver- Finches. All species resident.

Bush and savana country up to GOO0 ft., occasionally

Confined to and distributed nearly all over Africa. up to 8000 ft.

with crimson c$eek-patch, 2 without crimson cheek- patch and duller coloured throughout.

Raizge. The arid and savaiia districts north of the equator, the Uganda-Unyoro, and the East African highland and lowland districts.

Subspecies. 6 or 7 in number ; their distinguishing oharaoters are rather few. Except in achonr~us, Rize gives no help, all are d wing 52 k2. Colonr-distinctions are not great ; the browns above are much more useful and constant than the blues below, which besides varying in intensity (perhaps according to age of individual) are also glossy, and have to be oompared with due regard to incidence of light on the plnmage. Eroept in the Lake Tanganyika birds, the cheek-patohes are all alike, crimson. Except in brunneigiclaris and ugogosnris, the 9 ’ s all have blue-tinted faces (chin, cheeks, and ears). Field- observation helpd in i~gogoeirsis ( = Littoratie).

1926.1

Subsp. l a . U. b. bengalus

= U. b. perpallidus = U. b. bares

l a > l b . U. b. togoensis

l b > l a . U. b. canterunenria

Subap. 1 b. U. b. ugandae

Subep. 1 c. U. b. schoanus

Specific continuity is highly probable throughout the whole. range of the species, and is already established over the greater part of it; therefore intermediates occur in many parts, and some of these have been given names.

(L.) Syst. Nat. xii. 1766, p. 323 : typ. loc. Senegambia. Neum. J. f. 0. 1905, p. 351 : typ. loc. Lower White Nile. Zedl. J. f. 0. 1911, pp. 29, 606: typ. loc. Mareb River, Eritrea. d above warm to dull cinnamon-brown, the blue below cobalt,

tinged with turquoise. The colour-tints are subject to considerable individual variation unconformable with geography except locally, and there is the usual tendency towards paleness in the semi-desert northern edge of the bird's range, whether in Senegal or in the British Sudan at the opposite ends of its wide range. If desired to scparate these birds, peipaZZii2us is the correct name for the Sudanese race.

Range. Sudanese Arid District ; fusing with zcgnndre and schoanus respectively to the southward and eastward.

Rchw. Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berlin, V. 1911, p. 228 : typ. loc. Togo- land.

Also occurs in other parts of the marches of the Sudanese Arid and Savana District (Gold Coast binterland, Benue R., etc.).

Rchw. Mitt. 2001. Mus. Berlin, v. 1911, p. 228 : typ. loc. Banyo, Cameroons.

Also occurs in the Upper Guinea Savana District and elsewhere in the lower (not the montane) southern Cameroons. Perhaps also is the form in Gaboon and Loango.

Zedl. J. f. 0. 1911, p, 606: typ. loc. Entebbe, Uganda. d richer coloured than bsngalzu, the brown nearer vandyke-

brown, the blue nearer cobalt. Range. Uganda-Unyoro District and contiguous parts of the

Sudanese and Ubangi Savana districts ; fusing with bengalus t o the northward and westward, with brunneigularis to the eastward, and probably with schoanus to the north-eastward.

Neum. J. f. 0. 1905, p. 350 : typ. loo. Ejere, 8000 ft. Larger, wing 5 4 f l ; bright cinnamon-brown, the blue nearer

turquoiae-blue. Range. The southern part of the Abyssinian Highland and

adjacent (south-western) part of the Somali Arid District, up to, but not higher than, 8000 ft. ; fusing with bengalus to the northward and probably also according to longitude with each of the three other races to the southward.

372

1 c Z l a . U. b. senafensis

Subsp. I d . V. b. brunneigularis

Subsp. 1 e. U. b. ugogoensis

= U. b. littoralis = U. b. Zoveni

(Obs. 1).

Subsp. P I f . W. b. of Kasongo.

Species 2. Xraginthus angolensis

(Cordon-bleu).

Subspeciea.

Subsp. 2 a . U. a. angolensis = 27. b. cyaaoqastra

Admiral H. 1,ynes on the [Ibis,

Rchw. Mitt. 2001. MUS. Berlin, v. 1911, p. 228 : typ. loo. Senaf6 Also occurs in the adjacent parts (northernmost Abyssinia).

of high Eritrea.

Mearns, Smiths. Misc. Coll. lvi. no. 20, 1911, p. 6 : typ. loo. Wambugus, near Mt. Kenia.

d coloured very like wgandle, the blue rather more turquoise- tinged ; Q with brown or nearly all brown, not blue, face.

Range. The upland, equatorial (only), part of the East African Highland District ; fusing with vgandle to the westward, and probably with schonnirs and upgoensis to the northward and eastward respectively.

Rchw. Mitt. 2001. Mus. Berlin, xxv. 1911, p. 238: typ. loc.

Van Someren, Nov. 2001. 1923, p. 160 : typ. lor. Mombasa. Granvik, J. f. 0. 1923, p. 181 : typ. loo. Mombasa. Merely a mther paler race of brunneipdaris. Eange. The lowland and coastal, equatorial (only), part of the

East African Highland District ; probably fusing with bmnnei- gularis, and very likely also with schoanus to the northward.

Ugogo (about 200 miles west of Zanzibar).

Material available, only 4 9 from the S.E. Belgian Congo and Northern Rhodesia, 3000 to 4000 ft. (Baraka, Kasongo, Lofu R.).

Darker than any others ; d sepia and deeply-turquoised cobalt ; cheek-patches blood-red; with blue face. (Obs. 2.)

Both sexes without crimson cheek-patch ; like 8 , but duller coloured throughout.

Range. The Angolan Highland, the South-west Arid and South-east Veld Districts to northward of about Lat. 3OoS., and the East African Lowland District north to about Lat. 5' S.

3 in number. What has been said of the distinguishing characters of the subspecies of bengalzls in respect of size, coloration, and intermediates due to specific continuity applies equally to angolensis. (Obs. 3.)

(L.) Syat. Nat. x. 1758, p. I82 : typ. loo. Angola. (Daud.) Trait&, ii. 1800, p. 436 : typ. loo. Africa etc. 8 above pale sepia, the blue below rather light turquoise-blue. Range. The Angolan Highland Districts ; probably fusing with

niassenais to the eastward and d a m a r m i s to the Routhward.

1926.1 Birds 01 North and Central DaTfui.. 373

Subap. 2 b. U. a. niassensis

= U. 6. natalensis = U, b. mikindanensis

(Obs. 4).

Subsp. 2c. U. a damarensis

Species 3. Uraginthus cyano-

cephalua ‘Blue-headed Cordon-bleu).

Subspecies, Subsp. 3a.

Rchw. Mitt. 2001. Mus. Berlin, v. 1911, p. 228 : typ. loc. Nyass-

Zedl. J. f . 0. 1911, p. 607: typ. loc. Natal. Grote, 0. M. 1911, p. 162 : typ. loc. Mikindani.

land.

above vandyke-brown, the blue below like angol-ensis but stronger.

Range. The South-east Veld and East African Lowland Dis- tricts between about Lat. 30° S. and 60 S.

Rchw%iig. Afr. iii. 1904, p. 209 : typ. loo. Damaraland. A pale form of aragolenaia. Range. The South-west Arid District.

8 with whole head blue and no crimson cheek-patch ; 9 like 8, but duller coloured and less blue on head.

Ran-qe. Small, only the north-eastern part of the East African Highland and Lowland and south-western part of the Somali Arid Districts ; overlapping both of the preceding species.

2 in number,

U. c. cyanocephalus Richm. Auk, 1897, p. 157 : typ. loc. Kilimanjaro (S. & E.) foothills.

Range. The north-eastern part of the East African Highland and Lowland Districts j probably fusing with miilleri to the northward (Victoria Nyanza, S. and E. Kilimanjaro, Tsavo, Mbuzuni, Maungo, Dar-es-Salaam).

Subap. 3b. U. c. mulleri Zedl. 0. M, 1912, p. ’77 : typ. loc. Afgoi, South Somali.

6‘ A paler race ” (not examined, as we have no specimens). Range. The southern part of the Somali arid district ( G m e

Livin, S.E. Gallaland). __-

Observations. OBS. l.-We have no specimens from quite so fa r west in

Tanganyika colony a s Ugogo, bu t those from 120 miles nearer the coast which agree with littoralis van Sotn., surely must be the same, in which case yogoensis Rchw. has priority of name. Birds from Moinbasa, which is given as t h e type-locality for both littoralis and loveni by their respective mthors, do not agree very well with one another, so far

374 Admiral H. Lynes on the [Ihis,

as the descriptions go, are rather ‘‘ mixed,” and are perhaps intermediate between ugogoensis and schoanus, as also are very likely those obtained by Erlanger from Garre Livin, 500 miles north of Mombasa (marked on map as of unknown race).

OBS. Z.--These birds probably belong to a conspicuously dark race af the southernmost part of the species’ range, hut the speciinens are so few and are separated from all others of their kind by so wide a stretch of nnworked country, that it is thought better to distinguish them by n geographical name-tag until further work in this little-known territory shows to what extent these few birds represent an aggregate.

Judging by what is known of the distribution, variation, and habitat of the species, it ieems likely that it will be found to extend continuously from Uganda southwards along the upland bush country on the eastern rim of the Congo basin, its coloration continuing to deepen, like it does in passing from bengalirs to ugandae, until the limit of colour-intensity and southward range of the species are both, reached in the S.E. Congo Basin.

Dr. Sharpe remarksd on the intense colour of the Kasongo. specimen in Cat. B. xiii. p. 401,

OBS. 3 . -U ahgolensis and U. hengalus overlap in the East African Lowland District, where (but, as yet known, nowhere else) also occur rare examples * of angolensis with vestiges of crimson on the cheeks; just a few stray crimson feathers or feather-tips, but there is as yet nothing anywhere to indicate the existence of an intermediate aggregate between the two species. The character is that of an exceptional bleniish in purity ; whether its explanation is hybridism, or occasional reversion to an nnctrstral form, or what, is R nice problem for future investigation, but there is nothing in our present knowledge of it to invalidate the claim to specific rank, which surely must be given to the two very different colour-patterns of the male forms.

* Nombasa (B. M. coll.}, Morogoro (Tring ooll.), Mikindaai (Grote, O.BI.1911, p. 162).

1926. J Birds of North and Centrul Darfur. 375

OBY. 4.- In Tring Museum there is one angolensis from Baraka (Lake Tangnnyilw) with the mantle darker and less blue below than ty pica1 riiassensis, which may indicate a darker race of angolensis there, in andogy with but sp. 4 1.f.

OBS. 5. Some noteworthy overlap localities illustrated by specimens are :-

Tsavo, Kenya Colony. U. bengalzks bruianeigtiln& and U. cyanocephalua ryanocephalus.

Garre Livin, S. Somali. U. bengalns (near) srhonnzcs and U. cl~anocep7iaZns miilleri.

Kilimanjaro (S. & E.) foothills. U. bengnliis tcgoyoerisis, U. a~agoleiisir niassensis, and U. cya1iocep7talirs cyanocephalirs.

Coiiclzrsions.

Knowing what we (lo of the habits and hahitat of the members of this snia11 group of bird?, and realizing how greatly ecology doitiiiiates the matter throughout the African Continent, the distribution and v:iriety of its forms limy be called almost conirnoiiplace. Inhabitants of bush and light woodland, and widespreacl over the Continent, the Species are found almost wherever those types of country exist while they arc absent from forest and montane districts. They range continuously without gaps over nearly all-very likely time will show quite all-of the area inhabited ; therefore ihe variation in the geographical forms is gradual (as expressed in the classification by unit suhpeeies with niany intermediates), and it also has the very coninion colour-character of paleness in the more arid parts, and richness in those which are well clothed with veget, .I t' 1011.

Future work would be well placed :- (a ) I n Tanganyika Territory (wliero the three species over-

lap), with particular attention to the relationship between U. b. ugogoensis and littomlis, and to learn more about the occasional exnmp!es of C'. angolensis with traces of the bengalus crimson cheek-patch.

(A) On tlie rim of the Congo basin between Uganda and the south end of Lnlre Tanganpika, to settle tlie qnestion of the dark (? race of) heitgalus there.

SER. XII.--VOL. 11. 2 C

376 Admiral H. Lynw on tLe [Ibis,

(c) I n French Congo, to decide the race of Gahoon and Loango birds.

(d) Anywhere in the range of U. benguliis, in such 8 way as to provide a good account o f the sequence of' its plrmixges, with puticular reference to the growth of the clleek-patches.

THE HOVSE-KPAEROWS (see Ibis, 1924, 1). 687). (Map 13, P1. IX.)

The above term is intended to inclutle all those iuernbers .of the genus Passer witli a colonr-pattern O F grey, red *, white, bl:ick, and brown (and no yellow) similar to that of Pufiser domesticus, the Honse-Sparrow. Tlie ~ Y J U ~ is quite well defined froin the other groups of Tree-, Yellow-, Chestniit-, etc., Sparrows of the world, and :ill species of genus Passer in Africa except sinaplex! grisezu, gongonensis, nzelunurus, : ~ n d castunoptwus belong to it. Unfortunately the term cannot be regarded an entirely descriptive one, for a few members of the group frequent human habitations very little, if a t all j nevertheless i t is one readily separable by the taxonomist, and I use it for want of a better term.

111 my account of the Kordofan Sparrow (P. cordoj'uiziczcs) in Ibis, 1925, p. 6257, I put it as a subspecies of motitensis, of which in colour and colour-pattern it is indeed almost a small replica. Now, after having studied the whole group of House-Sparrows, i. e. by adding Palsarctic domesticus and the Sind Jungle-Sparrow pyrrhonotus, I see this is wrong, for conclusions drawn from colour and colour- pattern alone lead equally well to all being considered as subspecies of domesticus, which is absurd, for some kinds overlap in their breeding areas, and others are so distributed without intermediate forms a3 to make i t quite iinpossible, from consider,itions based on what we know about geographi- calvariation, to rank tlieir relationships lower than as specific.

* Thia term is referred to the tone8 of red described a8 cinnamon-red and chestnut, one or other of which is alWRyE present on the head and neck, in many species also on the rump and lower back, and i n some on the mantle and scRpulars as well. Where the latter tracts are concerned, the term is less satisfactory, for the browns there sometimes brighten to rufous- or tawny-browns approaching the cinnamon-reds, though never PO much as to domiuate the general appearance.

1926.1 Birds of X o r t l ~ and Ceictral Ilarfur. 377

I t is a group in which, unlilce many, tliere scems to be no ,single character of colour or foriu whose development can 'be conveniently used to indicate the relationships of its ~inemkicrs, and it is therefore neccss:iry to . draw conclusions .from a variety of soimes. For instance, motitenais and .cordofuriicus, so extreiiiely alike in colonr atld culour-p:ittern, .are separated hy hiilf the Continent with other not at :!ll interinc>di:ite Houue-Sp:irrow fornis intervening ; here the Pyrrliriline bill of' the former fortunately i ieptives the suhspecific relationship which coloration suggests, but aiiioiig other members the forin of hill iu an unreliable guide, since i t exhihits gradation.

Ag:iin, .P. pyr~honotus might well he, and has been judged a subspecirs of P. do)nestieus on itq characters of form and colour done ; but i)r. C:. B. Ticehurst has recently proved * ,that both forms breed alongside one anotlier i n Sind ant1 that their rclationsliip i 4 specific. Neither, when we look further into it, can the rump colour, grey or red (a character used Ly Dr. S h a r p for his lroy i i i Cat. l3. xiii. 1). 2'39 to group pyrr l~ono tu~ with the African niembers), be made to serve throughout t,he whole group.

Clearly, therefore, i n attempting to classify the group, we must, warned by theso vir tudly " proven " cases, recognize that House-Sparrows are apt to be bad deceivers in tlie iniitter of dress; and when it, conies to more difficult relation- sliil's, like those of jagoetrsis, cordoficnicus, slLelLtyi, and rctfo- .cincttts, forins less widely separated from one another but nevertlieless, so far as present knowledge goes, all of them without intermediate forms, it is no more than consistent t o classify them, too, as separate species.

These, then, are my reasons for riot only altering my former opinion of the rank of ~ordoJanicus, b u t also for .advancing to the rank of species in the classification that follows, sonie of those forins hitherto regarded as only subspecies.

The fu l l descriptions of all the birds of thie group heitlg -available, tlie classification which I propose will more con- -yeniently be given in key form-that is, indicating only

* Ibis, 1922, p. 6.52. 2 c 2

378 Admiral H. Lynes 0n the [Ibis,

the salient features hy which the varions forms 111:iy be recognized one from the other. The two exotics (P. donws- ticus and p~rrhonotus) are pnt in because of what has been said of their bearing on the subject.

It will probably be objected that the grade of red colour in the plumage is a feeble differentiating character. So it is ; but I can find no hetter one for the pr t icu lar pnr- pose, nnd reply that i t serves to illustrate what 1 have said about the failure of the paint-box, unaided by other criterh, to tell some of tlie relationships ; also that i t really does not matter much, for no one confuses any of the African House-Sparrows with any exotics, or is likely ever to suggest lower rank than specific for their inter-relationships.

~

L?peca$% charncfers of structure and calour.

A5 in Rchw. Vvg. Afr. iii. p. 240.

Acc~ssoi*y. N e s t 4 eggs House-Sparrom-like. and kabits.

Habitat . Also House-Sparrow-like, but some kinds, notably niotiknsis and pyrrhonotus, are not house-, but bush-lovers. All kiiids resident everywhere.

Range in Africa. Curiously patchy as detailed.

A . (Ex A f r i c a n ) . 8 w i t h tile red p a r t s cheufnzcf, mantle hecrvily strcnkrrf brown, ckesinut, and byfl.

Species n and numerous sn1)species.

Passer domesticus (The House-Spairom).

(L.) Syst. Nat. x. 1755, p. 183 : typ. loc. Sweden. d with upper breast black as well as bib (chin and

throat-patch) ; rump plain brown. Size medium ; d wing V t 6 . Considerable size-variation among

races. Range. Nearly all Europe and North Africa. extending

eastwards into Asia as f a r as Inclia and southupard only as far as Khartoum, thus touching thc fringe of the Ethiopian Region, but in no sense belonging t o Africa proper.

I 926.j Birds oj'iVortli uiitl Central Darficr. 379 Species 13

(no subsp.). Paeeer pyrrhonotue

(Siiid Jungle-Sparrow). Blytli, J. A. S. Beng. xiii. 1844, p. 946 : typ. loc. Sind.

d with only the bib black ; rump spangled with red.

Rnitp. Sind (28 examined).

C. B. Ticehurst, Ibis, 1922, p. 653.

Size sinall ; 8 wing 67 & 1.

B. (Africalt). 8 with fAe red parts cin?tmtoii-iaiE aml; block bib. Specie8 1.

Passer insularis. d with rump plaiii ash-grey ; mantle boldly steaked

Raitye. Socotra and Abd el Kuri Islands.

Sol. & Hartl. P. 2. S. 1881, p. 169 : typ. loc. Socotra.

Rnnge. Confined to Socotra.

0. Grant 8: Forbes, Bull. Liverpool Mus. 1900, p. 3 : typ. loc.

A pale end rather smaller race of the former ; d wing 71 22. Range. Confined to Abd el Kuri Island. (1 and type examined.)

blackish. Size medium.

Subsp. 1 a. P. i. insularis

(Soootran Sparrow). Full ooloured. Size medium; d wing 74+3.

Subsp. 1 b. P. i. hemileucus

(Abd el Kuri Sparrow). Abd el K w i Island.

8 w i f i tJhe red parts cirznartcoi~-red ; bltrck bib ; 2 ~ u n t p ylaig cinnnmo~i-red and mantle reddish-bi-oiuir.

Species 2 (no subsp.).

Passer shelleyi (Obs. 1).

Sliarye, Ibis, 1891, p. 256: typ. loc. Lado. d with black stripe behind the eye, and ear-coverts

white tipped with smoke-grey. Size medium j

lta1t,7~. The dry thorn-scrub country lying along the soutliward of the Abyssinian Higliland District. (4 and type examined.)

wing 72&2.

Species 3 (no subsp. ) .

Passer rufocinctue Fischer & Rchw. .J. f . 0. 1884, p. 55 : typ .loc. Masai- land.

d with no black stripe behind the eye, and ear-coverts white tipped witli smoke-grey. Size medium ; d wing 72+2.

Rtrriye. Kenya Colony Plateau (Naivasha, Nakuru, Loita, Njoro, Soguro, Molo River, Nairobi, Macha- ltos, Laikipia, N.W. Masailand). (86 examined.)

380 Adiiiiral H. Lynes on the [Ibis,

d with the red parts cinnamon-red ; black bib; rump p l a i n cinnanBoit-red ,- mantle cinnanion-red splashed with black ; ear-covevts white #, and a 6lack str+e behind the eye.

Species 4. Passer motitensis.

Subsp. 4 a. P. m. motitensis

Subsp. 4 b. P. m. benguellensie,

Species 6 (no subsp.) .

Passer cordofanicus (Obs. 2).

Species ci (no subsp.).

Passer jagoensis

With bill thick and arched (I’yrrhuline). Size large.

Smith, Report of Expedition for Expl. C. Africa (pub. Cape. Town), 1836, p. 50 : typ. loc. Old Latakoo, British Bechuana- land. 6 with mantle deep rich cinnamon-red sparingly splashed with

blltck ; top of head, hind neck, and shoulders smoke-grey to. smoke-brown. 8 wing 85+3. (11 and type examined.)

Rnuge. The South-we8t Arid District north of the Orange River fusing with benguellerisis to the Lorthward.

nov. subsp. Type in B. M. ad. (coll. Ansorge) 28.8.05, Huxe, Beng.iella. Wing 81, tail 54, tarsus 20, bill 14 (skull).

d with mantle bright cinnamon-red, xparingly splashed with black; top of head and shoulders pale ashy-grey. wing 80+3. (33 and type examined.)

A rather smaller, conepicuonvly lighter and brighter race than the preceding, the latter e.specially so in the 0 ’8.

R a ~ ~ g e . Only known as yet from thc typ. loc. Benguella, but evidently fuxes to tlie southward with ?not.~teiisis, a bird from northern DamaraIand being intermediate.

Finsch, in Heugl. Vog. N.0.-Afr. 1 Nachtr. 1871, p. cxli : typ. loc. Melspez, Kordofan.

Colours a i d colour-pattern (of both sexes) almost identical with P. ,mot i tens is bengiiellensis, but bill normal and size only medium. d wing 7618. (36 examined.)

Range. Darfui. (headquarters) and Iiorclofan.

Gould, P. Z. S. 1837, p. 77 : typ. ~ O C . Cape Verde 1s. The cinnamon-red very dark and rich throughout ;

maiitle heavily splashed ; top of head and shoulders smoky-black ; bill narrow. Size siiiall ; wing G4+2. (55 ex:tmiiied.)

Brtnge. The Cape T‘erde Islands.

W Except just at the top mnygiii of the tmct, where the featheis lialp to make the black pust-orhit:il eye-stripe.

1926.1 Birds of North and Central Rarfur. 381

Observations. OBS. 1.-Very little has been recorded about shelleyi.

W e have specimens only from Lndo (type), Morigalla, North Kerio R.iver, Karanioja (van Som.), Ji fa Medir (recorded in Itcliw. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 241 as rufocinctus), Bottor, and Tug Wujaleh ; all the last three near the Sornali-Abyssinian frontier about Lat. 10" N. (Archer & H a w I< e r) .

W e may hope before long to learn inore about the bird from Sir GeofYrt*y Archer, who tells ino that i t is conime1: iiear the western Somali frontier (though not yet known farther eapt.), where he ohtained his specimens with nests and eggs.

It is quito easily distiiigriislied froin wfoc inc tus by the cliaracters given, and althoirgh the two species are near one another in tlistribution, no interinediates are yet) forth- coiniiig, nor, L think, art: tliey likely t.0 be, unless perhaps as hybrids.

lhere are iiot enough €:ids kiiowii now to warrant even :L guess at the doniiiiitnt locality of d i e l l g i ; the ljreseiit lin0a.n distribution might suggest i t being somewhere between western Roni:tliland and Uganda, were tliere i iot

ainorig the few specimens we possess a slight difference bctwrell the eastern and western birds wliicli might indicatc r a t l i ~ r the opposite.

These few eastern birds are a trifla larger and have more grey on the ear-coverts than the western, diffei,enceu which may eventually prove representative of snhspecific aggregates.

ORY. 2.--This niiinc, as '' Passer jnyoerisis beny?ielleirsis, l h e Bengnella Sparron ," W H Y pullislied :is :i noni. nud. in Avicdturnl Mag. ser. 4, ro l . i. 1328, p p 227, 229. Mr. Sliore-Baily there records having reared a young bird (partial iLI1)iiio) from i i pair of 13engiiella i3tmrrows in captivity.

,.

, ?

382 Admiral H . .Lynes on the [Ibis,

AFRICAN GREY-HEADED SPARROWS (Pas.ier yriseus eto.).

Of late years i t l u i s been custoiiiarr to treat this group as consisting of two species, one griseus, ranging nearly all over Africa with nunierous subspecies, aiid one other as szcainsoni or nhyssinicus or gongoncnsis i i i t he north-east, whose separation from griseus rested rather 011 necessity froin t w o different foriiis being supposed t.o overlap in r:inge than froin a study of other criteria.

This 1 inske out to be, in tile miin, correct, and the present review aims only a t giving proportion to the geographical races of gTiseus, and definitioil t o the second species, wliich I considor to be . I ) . gorigonensis Ousr. It will, however, be seen tha t more inquiry is still necessary before tlie status of tlie latter call be considered settled.

I’usser griseus is clearly o m of those virile species rendy to adapt itself to a variety of habitat, provirled tbe altitude is not great, from arid bush to the very outskirts of the forests. Froin north to south, Kenya colon^ excepted, compared with many other species, it changes ext,raortlinarily little, and local variations seem to be often as grea t as those in immensely eep ra t ed parts of the Continent.

About twelve races a re currently used, but 1 do not th ink more than four can be distinguished on w1i:it I have c:illed a b r sepa rn te 75-iier-cent. convc nt,ioii.”

(Map 14, P1. X.)

Class$cation of’ the 4 j i i can Grey-headed Sparrows (Pawer griseus a,2d Passer gongonensis).

Specvic* characters o j struc/o,.e and colour.

As in ltchw. Y6g. Afr. iii. pp. 282-280.

Accesso~!/. Nest 4 e.q.7~ House-8 p r o w -like. and k n b i f s .

X a h i t a f . Also Housc-Spal.lr)m-like: but ill general less a lover of huinan habitations, more a bird of bush and savana country. In South Africa d)Jusus appears to be very little of a village lover ; in Keiija Colony inore so. All kinds resident everywhere.

Range. Coilfined to and distributed nearly all over Africa.

Species 1. Paseer griseue

{Grey-headed Sparrow).

Subspecies.

Subsp. 1 a. P. g. griseus

= P . nikersoni = P . albiventris =P. diffuaus thierryi

= P. griaeua elitrere

l n > l b. P . occidenta1,is

With normal Sparrow-like bill. Raiige. Nearly all Africa pi*oper, except the north-

4 in number; all very similar, distinguished only by comparatively small differences of size and tint, each one fusing more or less gradually into its neighbouring form or forms.

(Vieill.) Nouv. Dict. xii. 1817, p. 198 : typ. loo. [Senegal]. Madarksz, Ann. Mus. Nat. Hung. 1911, pp. 341, 342: typ. 100s.

Rchw. 0. M. 1899, p. 190: typ. loc. Mangu (Gold Coast hinter-

Zedl. J. f. 0. 1911, p. 33 : typ. loc. W. Eritrea and Sudan. Ad. 8. Crown pale to medium dull ash-grey; above dull red-

brown, of pale to medium tint, varying locally and to Borne extent following the general inclination to palenerts in those inhabiting the more arid parts ; below white, tinted with pale ash-grey, always so on breast, elsewhere variable ; chin and throat white, forming a throat-patch, generally fairly well defined by the surrounding grey tints ; lower tail-coverts and crissum white, long feathers variable from white with large smoke-brown centres (in about 70 per cent. of individuals) t o nearly immaculate; not a stable character.

Local variation in size is shown by the following d wing sizes :-North Nigeria and ffold Cwet hinterland 83+3, Uarfur 87+3, Sennar, Eritrea 88+3. I f desired to separate the pale birds, e r i f w s Zedl. is the correot name, but the result will be found more related to local than general geography. (c. 150 examined.)

Rarbgs. The Sudanese Arid District j fusing with ~ r y u i ~ d l e to the southward and siuainsoni t o the eastward.

eastern part and the extreme south.

Rahad, Dinder, Sudan.

land).

d wing 84+6.

Shelley, Ibis, 18833, p. 548 : typ. loc. Lokoja, S. Nigeria.

l b > l n . P . g , klainschmidti Grote, J. f. 0. 1928, p. 483 : typ. loo. Ngaundere, Ahmaus,

These and other forms intermediate between griseus and ugamdre (Type of

4000 ft., Cameroons.

occur in the western equatorial parts of Africa. occidentalis and 19 examined.)

Subup. 1 b. P. g. ugandze Rchw. Viig. Afr. iii. 1904, p. 231 : typ. loc, Uganda etc.

Ad. d. Above rich warm red-brown, otherwise much like grisevs. wing 85k3. (70 examined.)

Range. The Uganda-Unyoro and northern part of the East African Highland, Ubangi Savana, and southern (low) part of

a 84 Admiral H. Lynes on the [ I b i P ,

the Cameroon Montane Districts; fusing to the southward with difllmU8 and to the northward with gn'eeus.

Fusion with aiuninsoni is a t present, I think, obsoure. Richest, darkest individuals (as kleinschmidti) occur more in

the west than the east, but it does not seem to me a form satisfactorily recognizable in the aggregate.

1 b > l c. Y. g. auahelicua Rchw. V6g. Afr. iii. 1904, p. 231 : typ. loo. German East Africa.

Represents the form distributed throughout the greater part of Tanganyika Territory. (20 examined.)

l c > l b. P. g. mosambicz~i P Van Som. Nov. 2001. xxix. 1922, p. 167: typ. loc. Lumbo,

Subsp. 1 c.

P. g. diffusus

P. g, georgicus

1 c z l b.

P. g. zedl i t z i

Subsp. 1 d. P. g. swainsonjl

(Obs. 1).

Mozambique. Represents more or less the form inhabiting the aouthern haIf

of the East African highland and Iowland and the northern par t of the South-east Veld Districts. (Type and 24 examined.)

(Smith), Rep. S. Afr. Exped. 1836, App. p. 53 : typ. loc. north of Orange Eiver.

Rchw. Viig. Afr. iii. 1904, p. 231 : typ. loo. Damaraland. A browner bird. Ad. d. Crown dull brownidi-grey; above dull

warm brown, below suffused pale brownish-grey, except the mid-belly and the whitish throat-patch, which latter is always prosent, but often poc)rly defined. (Type and 40 examined.)

Range. South Africa, north of the Orangc River ; fusing with g ~ i s e ~ r s to the north-westwards and uyai tda t o the north- eastwards.

d wing 82 2 3 .

Gyldenstolpe, Bull. B. 0. C. xliii. 1922, p. 36 : typ. loc. near Benguella Town, Angola.

Represents the form distributed throughout the western part of the Angolan Highland and Southern Congo Savana Districts. (62 examined.)

Riipp. N. Wirb. Vijg. 1835, p. 94, pl. xxxiii. fig. 2 : typ. loc. N.E. Africa.

A gzey bird. Ad. 8. Crown darkinh ash-grey; above much like gyixeux, but rathcr browner and wearing greyor ; below ash-grey. except only a small whitish clearing rather than a patch 011 the mid-belly and throat. This nuance on the chin and throat varies individually from very nearly absent t o fairly well defined, and is clcarer and more constant in the female. Lower tail-coverts and crissum spotted with smoke-grey, long feathers smoke-grey with pale borders ; considerable individual variation in the quantity of the dark Golour, but tho character is a more stable one in swainsoni

Birds of Korth and Cmtral Uarfur. 385 1926.1

1 d<>l a.

P. g. neumanni

ld>a.

Species 2. Passer gongonensis

(Obs. 2 j (The Thick-billed Grey-

headed Sparrow j. (No subspecies.)

than in the other races of griseua. wing 8645, k& 68 +4. (70 examined.)

Range. The Abyminian Highland District ; fusing with griseur t o the north-westward and overlapping, if not fusing With (vide antea), ugatid8 to the southward.

Zedl. 0. M. 1908, p. 180 : typ. loo. Salamona, E. Eritrea. The yellowish tinge of the lower tail-ooverts observed by Count

Zedlitz in these birds seems to me due to stain derived from the soil. Stain below is very common in these Sparrows, a s well as in many other birds taken during the rains. It is more often rust-red, but, of course, varies with the colour of t h e soil. I do not think either yellow or red pigments are to be found in the lower sides of any of these Sparrows. (7 examined.)

The single bird (a 2 ) from Port Sudan, referred to in Scl. & Pr. 1918, p. 174.

Oust. Le Naturaliste, 1990, p. 274 : typ. loc. Gongoni, near Moinbasa.

With thick (Pyrrliuline) bill. Size large and tail rather short coinpared with P. gyiscus swoinsoni, which it closely resembles in general coloration.

Range. Kenya Colony from the coast, west t o the edge of the Victoria Nyaiiza basin, north to about Lat. 5‘ N. (the north end of Lake Eudolf), south to about Lat. 25” S. inhnd, 5’ S. on the coast.

d ad. wing 96+4, tail 66fR (cf. P. p i s c z / s sioirin- souij. (58 esainiiiecl.)

Western birds run rather sinaller than coastal birds, bnt retain the siiiiie outstanding characteristics.

-

OhsrTcatioris.

OBY. l.--Ther.c is no doiibt tlittt it is iho grey-brvnsted iioruwtl-billed form of p*istiis which is doiriiii:int in 11i(?

At)ysJinian Highland District. In addition to tliu seveiity spe::imens exatiiined, I tnay add that last ye:^, between the middle Hawash Vxlley iind Adis Ababa, I examined with spy-glasses a t a few yards’ range--for they are exceedingly coninion :ind tame about the houses there-quantities of these birds, to inquire particularly into tile debated question of tlie


grey breast. and t,he white t’nroiit. Hitherto my personal acquaintance with i.he species had been confined to P. g. g i i w i s in the arid belt. The grey breast, strikingly different to gviseus, was invarialjle ; in that respect all birds were quite alike, and as for the throat, one could generally make .out some nuance there, not nlwnys. I n the latter respect i t was easy to see the same slight individual differencrs that a re found in t,he museum Rpeciinenf, as well as to note the likelihood of Riippell’s artist linving talien full advantage of all that, light could give hini to develop a light in his picture, perhaps even ii. trifle higher than his model .authorized. I really do not tlrink more value can be given than that to the throat in the picture, and surely die “toto gastrzo cinereo” of the Latin description is sufficiently good for the Abyssiniiiu bird. I n the name, therefore, I have followed Count Zedlitz, and not Professor Neu- mann *.

OBS. 2.-Dr. vnii Soitieren, in Nov. ZooI. xxix., gives an intermediate race between gongonensis and swaiiisoizi (as alyssit i icus), but I cannot find evidence of it in $111 our series, which iiiclude (in Tring Museum) itiany froni his own collection. So far RR overlap of the two goes, the I3ritish Museum has one (Cozens-Lowe) quite typical .swainsoni from Lob, 100 miles west of Nairohi, and Tring several froin Nairobi, Kikuyu, wliiclr seem also to me .to be typical siuainsoni. Nor can I firid any evidence of gongonensis fusing with its other neighbouring fbriii

ugantim. All thc itbove considerations suggrst gongoiiensis being

,classed as specifically distinct from griseus. But, from a distributional point of view, it looks all wrong. Over nearly .all the rest oE Africa, griseus is spread with remarkably little variation in size and form. I s i t possiiLle that Kenya Colony, so rich in the variety of its bird-lit’e and its types ot habitat, and wLicli we know to contain nearly all species coininon to Tanganyika Colony and southern Ethiopia, is just the one

* J. f. 0. 1911, p. 31, and J. f. 0.1905, p. 252.

1924.1 BivrEs qj' A'orth a i d Centr.aE Ba$ir. 38 7

district, perhaps the least likely of all, without a forin of griseus. It seems altnost incredible : nevrrtheless, one must go by what tlie hirds S ~ O \ N , and not by conceptiocs of how they might be distributed. P. gongomnsis is considerably niore distinct in form froin griseus than any of the obvious races of that species, which fact alone does not negttive racial relationship, oE course ; a t the same tiwe we hcivo ample illustration-of the pushing nature of other Sparrows in other parts of the world, anti the iden that tlie large thick-billed bird has arrived at the point of oiisting nearly all its lesser (gkseus) cousins from K e n p Colony is not llntennble--tJs a theory.

ETere is vood ground for investig~ntion : for the present i t seems best to keep qongon~nsis as :L separate species, observing tha t froin the nomenclatural point of view s u b species a re much more easily in:& tlian untied.

F o r the north-easternmost par t of the range of gongownsis it is itrpossible iiot to accept von Erlnnger's determinations i n J. f . 0. 1907, p. 26, \\herein he most clcarly specifies the birds he collected froin Ilan:~ (Lat. 4' N., Long. 40° S.) to the southward as goiigonensis, . i t i d those frotri Arus4-Gnlla to the northward as s i ~ a i ? ~ s o u i .

9

ROCK-CHATS, Gettns Cer*conielu (131). Chnpt . Rend. xlii. 1856, p. 766). (Map 15, PI. X.)

Generic c?iarncter.s Much like those of the Wheatears, GT?znntlw Vieill., OJ structure.

Of COlOZl?* .

but the wing more rounded, with a larger tirst and shorter second primary than in any irieirtbers of that genus, although in that respect and in Iiaving the sixth primary einarginate approaching (Enanthe through the Black Wheatears, a. Zeucrwzcs and leucopypi. Plumage softer and looser than in IFrLnntJie.

Sexes alike in colour, the 9 rather the smaller. Adults, except in respect of tail aiid its u y ~ p e ~ coverts and rump, plain sober-coloured birds of browns and greys

,388

without marked contrasts in the pattern, and rusty ear-coverts. Rump and upper tail-coverts plain, and with tlie tail, which is either plain 01‘ pai*ti-coloured, in contrast or in harmony with the rest of t h e plumage, according to species.

Young, in all except one species(fn,,ziZia~~i.~), resembling the Hlaclr Wlicatenrs in being coloured as adult ; in the exception spotted like the typical QCnnizfhe.

N p s f 4 qgs. Nest, like some of Q h m t h e , with a platforin of small stones; eggs, like those of many G%~anf?i~, pale blue with (generally) rusty spots.

CEnnntke-like in general, but with the distinctive habit of ‘. twinkling,” tha t term signifying a staccato opeiiing and closing of the h i 1 and wings which. a t once attracts attention as something different to the quick “ Hicking ” or “f l i r t ing” of those inembers characteristic of @?zcc?if7re. ( I t is not known whether on this account Gr~con~~lo: has any small muscular developments differing from CEnnnfhe.)

The alarm-note of three out of tlie four African species is a subdued chirp, not like tha t of most Wheatears ( tha t of the fourth (dzibia) is, so far, unlmown, as are also its young, nebt, and eggs).

Accessory.

H(z bit s.

All species resident. Typically, arid or bush country among rocks, kopjes,

and crags (hence the English name) as opposed in a general sense to the varied maste lands more characteristic of the typical (Enanthe ; but human habitations are frequented by some individuals.

Central India, Palestine, S.W. Arabia *, and throughout nearly all the African mainland, except the montane, forest, and Abyssinian Highland Dig- tricts.

H a b i f a f .

Banye.

* One record for Enpt ( S i d l , Ibis, 1909, p. 290). [A vngrant from Ptllestine probably.]

1926.1 Birds qf A'oTth and Central l larfuy. 389

Key t o Xyecies. a. Eump, tail, and its upper coverts contrasting conspicuously with the general

Above grey or light brown ; rump, tail, and its upper

Above grey or brown ; rump, tail, and its iipper coverts

6. Rump, tail, and its upper coverts not contrasting with the colour of upper

2. C. scotocema. Above dull brown ; below paler ; size small to medium. 5. c. f u s c a . Itich rufous brown throughout, brightest below. Size

lwge. 4 C. dubia. Sepia above, paler sepia to whitish below; tail very

dark sepia, all lo\ver tail-coverts dark ; bill stout. Size large.

colour of upper side. 1. C. naelanura.

3. C. fiemiliaris. coverts black.

red and black.

side, but brown of much the same shade as the wings.

Species 1, 2, 3 are represented by races (6'. m. airensis in Asben, C. 8 . scotocerca in Eritrea, C, f. angolensis in Benguella) so like one another in all respects that, except for the colours of their rumps and tails, they can scarcely be told apart.

Species 1. Cercomela melanura

(Black-tailed Rock-Chat).

Subsp. 1 a. C. m. melanura

= C. asthenia s MymnecocichZa

yerburyi

Subsp. 1 b. c. m. erlangeri

Above, grey or light brown ; below, whitish, clouded on chest and flanks with a pale wash of the upper side colour. Rump, tail, and its upper coverts black. I n quite fresh plumage the upper side is darker, especially in the brown-tinted races, and the lower side flushed with cinnamon-pink.

Range. Part of the Sudanese and Somali arid districts.

Baaicoh melalzura Temm. PI. Col. no. 257,1824, flg. 2: typ. loc.

Bp. Compt. Rend. xlii. 1856, p. 766 : typ. IOC. Arabia Petrea. Sharpe, Bull. B. 0. C. iv. 1895, p. 37 : typ. loo. Paleatine. 8, 9 ad. Upper-aide pale (ash) grey; tail pure black. 8 wing

Range. Palestine, N. Arabia.

Arabia Petrea.

79k1, tail S l + l . (8 examined.)

Neum. & Zed. J. f . 0. 1913, p. 364: typ. loc. Khareba, S.W.

d, $? ad. Upper side dark (smoke)' grey; tail pure black.

RaTtge. S.W. Arabia.

Arabia.

wing 82 & 3, tail 63+ 3. (23 examined.)

390

Subsp. 1 c. C. m. lypura

l c ? l a . \

Subsp. 1 d. C. m. aireneis

Species 2. Cercomels scotocerca

(Brown-tailed Rock-Chat).

Admiral H. Lynes on the [Ibis,

Syloicc l y p u ~ t Hemp. & Elm. Symb. Phys. fol. C.C. Anm. 1. 1828 : typ. loo. Eritrea (.‘ Abyssinia ” before 1890).

8 , Q ad. Above greyish-brown ; fail brownish.black, (r wing 7823, tail 55+2. (28 cxamined.)

Range. &d Sea Province, Eritream lowlands, through Danakil and the Hawash Valley east to central British Somaliland (Waghar Range),

Obs. Somali birds are a trifle paler and sandier tinted than the northern birds, but when plumages are compared age for age there is not enough difference to separate on a “ separate 75-per-cent.” standard.

Kordofan (Haraza Hills).

Hart. Nov. 2001. xxviii. p. 114 : typ. loc. Mt. Baguezan, Asben. d , 9 ad. Above light cinnamon-brown ; tail brownish-black.

Range. Asben, North and Central Darfur. 8 wing 79 I, tail 59 + 1. (23 examined.)

Above, brown with brighter rump ; below, whitish clouded with brown, from lightly on the breast and flanlts t o so strongly as to leave scarcely any of the light tint, even on the belly. ‘Tail brown, of much the same shade as the wings and harmonizing w i t h the whole upper plumage. Lower tail-coverts exhibit complete gradation from whitish with a few brown- centred feiithers in 25 per cent. of individuals in the pale races to nearly all feathers brown-centred in every individual in thc darkest race (firrLniui). (Obs. 1.)

R n n y . Foothill6 of the Abyssinian Highland District, well into the Soniali Arid District, arid Darfur, overlapping melnnuvn in Eritrea, Daifur, and the Hawash Valley.

ij‘aaicola scoiocerca Heugl. Vdg. N.0.-Afr. i. p. 363, Sept. 18G9 : typ. loc. Eritrea (“Abyssinia ” before 1890).

Blanf. Geol. & Zool. Abyss. p. 359, NOT. 1869 : typ. loc. Mashalit Pass, Eritrea.

8 , 9 ad. Above to rump, pale olive-brown, below whitish, with breast and flanks lightIy clouded with brown ; lower tail- coverts, longest feathers brown-centred in about 50 per cent.

391 1926.1

Subsp. 2 b. C. s. furensis

Subsp. 2 c. C. s. turkana

subsp. 2 a. C. 8. enigma

Subsp. 2 e. C. B. epectatrix

of individuals ; crissnm always plain whitish, small ; wing 71 2, tail 53 +. 2. (7 examined.)

Rump. Eritrea and Red Sea Province of British Sudan.

Size rather

nov. subsp., types d and $' pair, Jebol Marra, 7300 ft., Central Darfur, 6th March, 1921 (ex Lynes-Lowe Call. in Brit. Mns.). d wing 80, tail 63, leg 23, bill to skull 19. 9 wing 72, tail 58, leg 22, bill to skull 17.

Like scotocerca, but markedly larger and rather more sandy- coloured throughout, age for age. Lower tail-coverts: longest feathers brown-centred in about 25 per cent. of individuals j

crisaum always plain whitish. 8 wing 78 *2, tail G0k3. (16 examined.)

Range. Central Darfur. (A fairly well-worked gap of 700 miles between the ranges of

scotocerca and furensis with C. familiaris senanrensis (subsp. 3 g ) intervening.)

Van Sam. Nov. Zool. xxix. 1922, p. 242, typ. loo. : Turkana (N,W. shore of Lake Rudolf).

A dark bird. 8 , $' ad. Above bistre (rufous-aepia); below strongly washed bistre throughout, deepest on chest and flanks ; lower tail-coverts, longest feathers always brown- centred, also most of those of the crissum. d wing 78+2, tail 6252 . (12 examined.)

Range. Lake Rudolf to N.E. Kenya Colony (North Guaso Nyiro).

Neum. & Zedl. J. f. 0. 1913, p. 368 : typ. loc. Dire Dam, Middle Hawash Valley, 3500 ft.

d , 9 ad. Above, most like scotocerca, but considerably greyer : below, most like turkana, but lighter. Lower tail-ooverts and crissum intermediate between those two race8 ; tail rather short. 6 wing 76+1, tail 55+1 (one 47). (5 examined.) (Obs. 2.)

Range. Hewash Valley (the whole watershed) to S.E. Ethiopia (Garre Livin, Ganala (Erlanger)).

S. Clarke, Bull. B.O.C. xl. 1919, p. 49 : tsp. loo. Khorai, N.E. Somaliland, 250 miles east of Berbera.

A rather paler and oonsiderably greyer edition of enigma ; tail short. wing 82+l , tail 53. (3 examined.)

Range. Northern Somalihud ; probably fusing with enigma to the eastward. The only known specimena besides the type are two, 8 0 , collected by Sir Geoffrey Archer at Bihendula, 20 miles S.S.E. of Berbera.

392

Species 3. Ceroomela familiaris

(Red-tailed ltoc k- Chat, or Familiar Chat).

Subsp. 3 a; C. f. familiaris

Subsp. 3 b, C. f. hellmayri

Admiral H. Lynes on the [Ibis,

Rump, tail, and its upper coverts chestnut-red, the tail with an (Enanthe-like pattern of brown. Re- mainder of plumage, except lower tail-coverts, which are plain, much like C. scotocera, and with similar range of t int from dark to light according to geographical station. The tints of the tail are similarly varied. The brown tail-band is broadest in the southern and least in the northern paces, but, except in the former, there is so much individual variation that this character is of small practical help in distinguishing the races. The amount of red a t the base of the central rectrices varies from nil in the south to about one-third of the feathers in the north. In quite fresh plumage, where known, birds are darker above, but not more than the average for fresh plumages.

Range. All Africa south of the equator except the Lower Guinea Forest District ; north of the equator i t is a curiously local bird and, though seeming to overlap the other species, has so far never been found alongside any of them.

SaEicoZa familiaris Steph. Gen. Zool. xiii. 2, 1825, p. 241: typ. lac. South Africa.

A richly-coloured bird. 8 , 9 ad. Above warm sepia-brown, below brownish-buff throughout ; tail, central feathers blackish throughout, the others rich chestnut-red with broad black-brown band. wing 87 +2. (41 examined.)

Range. Youth Africa, south of about Lat. 2 7 O S. ; fuaing with heZZmayvi t o the north-eastward and with galtoni to the north-westward.

Badcola famiziaris hellmayri Rchw. 0. M. 1902, p. 78. 8 , Q ad. Rather less deeply coloured. Above warm vandyke-

brown, below rather lighter ; tail-band narrower and Borne- times interrupted by absence on inner webs of feathers; central rectrices occasionally with traces of red at base.

Range. Transvaal, Southern Rhodesia, Gazaland, fusing with falkensteini to the northward, with famiEiaris to the eouth- ward, and probably with galtoni and angdensis t o the westward.

wing 89 +4. (28 examined.)

(926.1 Birds of North and Centrctl Darfiir. 393

Subsp. 3 c . C. f. galtoni

Subsp. 3 d. C. f. angolensis,

Subsp. 3 e . C. f. falkensteini

=Bessonor)~is inodesta

=Phcenioaras teasmami

= C. f. genderuensis

Subrrp. .3 f. d. f. omoensis

Erythropygia gnltoni Strickl., Jard. Contr. Orn. 1852, p. 147 :

Paler, more sandy than heltmayri above and below; tad-band (7 ex-

Range. Damaraland ; fusing with the neighbouring races as

typ. loc. Damaraland (c. Lat. 23' S.).

even more variable, rathcr smaller. amined.)

given. (Obs. 4.)

wing 84 ;t 3.

nov. subsp. Type in Brit. Mus., ad. $ (Ansorge), Huxe, Ben- guella, 10. ix. 05 ; wing 83, tail 59, leg 24, bill to skull 17.

Also a pale bird like galtoni, but above greyish more than sandy; below washed with dull cinnamon with occasional greyish tints : tail-band extremely variable, often little more than vestigial. 8 wing 82+2. (38 examined.)

Range. Angola, Mossamedes to St. Paul de Loando, and Malanje; fusing with fdkensteini to the northward and eastward, and with galtoni to the southward; probably a180 with hellmayri to the south-eastward,

Sasicola falkensteini Cab. J. f. 0. 1875, p. 235 : typ. loc. Tschinschosoho, Loango ; Rchw. Vng. Afr. iii. p. 783 (part.).

Shelley, Ibis, 1897, p. 539 : Karonga, N.W. shore of Lake Nyasa.

Rchw. J.f.0. 1921, p. 4 9 : typ. loc. Bosum and Buera, S.E. Cameroons (grasslands).

Bann. Bull. B. 0. C. xliii. 1922, p. 8 : typ. loc. Genderu high- lands, Central Cameroons, 4600 f t .

$, ad. Above, dark like familiaris; below, in general rather light ; chin, mid-throat, and belly nearly pure white ; remainder cloudedwith light to darkish smoke-grey or brown ; tail with band of moderate width, and central rectrices with basal part, not more than one-fourth of their length, red: but in both these respects there is much individual variation in the tail. (16 and type of modeeta examined.)

Range. The oentral part of Africa except the Congo Forest ; on the west side Loango to the Cameroons; on the eaat side Nyasaland to about the equator j fusing to the southwards with angolensis on the west side, and with hellmayri on the east side of the Continent.

8 wing 82+2.

Sazicola galtoni omoeiisis Neum. 0. M. 1904, p. 163 : typ. loc. Omo territory, South Ethiopia.

The darkest race of all, like an intensively-coloured fazkensteini. $, 9 ad. Above warm sepia-brown, below as falkemteini,

2 D 2

394

Subq. 3 y. C. f. sennaarensis

= Bessonoritis gnnzbaga

Species 4. Cercomela dubia

(Sombre Rock-Chat). (No subspecies.)

Species 5. Cercomela fusca (No subspecies.)

Adriiitxl H. Lynes on t h e [This.

but the tints darker, nearly purc smoky-grey. Central rectrices with rather more rod a t base, up to about one-third of their length,

Probably isolatcd : Gofa for ornoensis, Bukoba (Vict. Nyanza) for fuFalkensteiiti, a distance of about 600 miles is the least distance as yet reported between the ranges of these two very closely-allied races.

6 wing 81 _+ 3. (8 and typc examined.) Range. South Ethiopia.

E w i e o i n seiciinnrrwis Soeb. Cat. 13. Brit. Mus. v. 1881, p. 391 : typ. lac. Sennnr.

Hart. Nov. Zool. 1899, p. 420 : typ. loc. Gambaga, Gold Coast hinterland.

Very like nngoleirsix. a trifle darker above and a trifle greyer below ; tail as nnyolensis in variability of terminal band, but with variable red b4se to central rectriccs as in omoenszs. d wing r32+2. (14 and type examined.)

Range. So far as ifi yet known, isolated in the Sudanese Arid DiRtrict ; npeciincns from Gambaga (12), Nubaland (3) , and Sennar (1).

iKym/ecocichIn dubin Blund. & Lovat, Bull. B. 0. C. x. 1899, 11. 22 : typ. loc. Fontaly, Middle Hawash Valley, 4000 ft.

A large dark bird. c? , 9 ad. Above, sepia.; below, including wing-lining, much clouded with pale sepia, but throat and belly whitish. Tail, plain dark sepia as wings. Lower tail-coverts, including crissum, sepia with light buff fringes. Bill particularly strong. (3 and type examined.) (8bs. 3 & 3.)

6 wing 82, 83; tail 62, 65.

Range. Middle and Upper Hawash Valley.

Saxicola fusca Blyth, J. A. S. B. xx. 1851, p. 523. Another large bird and the darkest of all. 8 , 9 ad.

Above warm sepia, below bright snuff - brown throughout; tail long, plain dark sepia as wings. d wing 90+ 3, tail '70 1. (24 examined.)

Raizge. A considerable portion of the Central Indian Plain.

1926.1 . R i d of ilortlb and Centra l .DaTfur. 395

Observations. ORS. l.--C. scotocerca. I t is even niore than usually neces-

sary to comp:ire the plumages of t,hi?i species age for age. Jus t af ter the annual moult tlie hirds :ire much darker and browner th:iii six months lat,er, for iiot only do feathers orginally pure brown ahracle, so a?, through striictnral altera- tion, to appear grey-brown Gr even only brownish-grey *,but iu C. scotocerca during the hreeding-Aeason the plumage ia soinetiiiics so abraded :is to :illow the grey of the fcathcr- bases to filter through aid add to the greyness of the general appearance. Tho sh:des of colonr given are those of about half-worn dress, that, which the b i d s are in during the cool .season in t.liese parts, which provides (nnfortnnately) about 90 per cent. of tlie irittcriul i t i our rccords and Museums.

ORS. 2.--C. scotocerca etLigiua. We liuve none ill bhe British Museutu, but through the coirrtesy of Ur. Stresemann, I lrave been able to exatnine h e Berlin Huseuin speciinens from the Hawash Valley, recorded i n J . f . 0. 1913, :IS well as two obtained h y von Erliinger iu S.E. Ethiopia. The foriner consist of two C. scotoceroa en igma, the sintiller birtis,

(type), wing 75, tail 47, and 9 , wing 75, tail 54. The tail of' the illale is probably unitsuiilly +hart, showing very likely the tendency of the tail to shorten towards Sornaliland, which produces the Somali short-tailed race spec ta t r i v .

The other two prove to be two C. thtbia quite agreeing with our type, except that in one, only the long under tail- coverts art) the typical sepia witli pile fringes, the crissiim being whitish wi th a few dark strrrilis, in this respect therc- ,fore maintaitting the sornawh;it individual variability of .character shown in wotocerca .

Measurements of these two birds : 8, wing 84, tail 65 ; 2 , wing 80, h i 1 61.

This discovery, which Dr. Stresemann pointed out to tile

when forwarding the spcimens, accoiiiit,s satist'actorily Tor * Exwtly the opposite result to t h t recorded iu Ibis, 1926, p. 795,

but, I think, only another pkape of the rapid menr of feathers in nrid windy lacnlit,ies.

39 6 Admiral H. Lynes 01). t11r [Ibis,

the abnormally large variation i l l size (wings 75-84) re2orded by Neurnann and Zsdlitz for enigma.

S o far this species is only represented by the two specimens in the Brit. Mus. Coll. and the t w o already referred to a t Berlin (Fontaly, Dire Daua, and Abassueii, a11 in the Middle and Upper Hawash Valley).

In having put Huhia as allied to melanzira rather tlian to, scotocercu, the original description is unfortunate ; the tail is not a t all in black contriist with the general tody-colour as is characteristic of melanura, but quite in harmony with the dark body, and just the wing-colour-sepia.

It has, however, been quite correctly placed in Cercornela; i t is a regular Rock-Chat, in wliicli George Solain will corroborate me, for we watclied the bird last year ;it the Hawash River for some time a t short ~.ange!. It was sunset, and two Cemomelu nze1uwi.a and ;in ,4 n t f i i c s sordidus had been playing about close to us, fussing for roosling-places, as it seemed. The Kock-f:hnts were “ twinltling ” furiously, and Bolain agreed with we that the habit quite separated tlie bird (in life) from the Wheatears. Before this l i t h party could come to terms, an undonbted Ce?-cotrreZu tlubia arrived within their midst, an.d with precisely the same “ twink- lings” dispersed the lot. This was :i big upstanding bird, and escept for the dark brown colour of its tail and body, looked and behaved like an enlarged edit im of the ?nslcmura. They were only a few yards from 11s most of the time, and I had particularly studied tile specimens of tluhia at home in hopes o f meeting the bird i n AhJssinia, so could scarcely have been mistdren :i.l)out its identity.

OBS. 4.--Tn Vijg. Afr. iii. 1 1 . 783, I)r. Ileichenow united under fulkensteini the dark Central African bird and the pale Angolan bird, brit the two really are different. The description is of the dark Loango bird, Cabanis’s type, and matches, :is do typot,ypical specimens f roin Loango, the hype oE Besso- nornis motlesta Shelley (wliich is not to be confounded with Saricola motie.qta Tristr. Ibis, 1869, 1). 209 = .Fharginata cinerea (Vieill.)), so that unfortunately a new name is required for the Angolan bird, since it is separable from its neighhours ?icllniayri and galtoni.

OBS. 3.-C,dulia.

I 926.1 Birds of Nortlr and Central Darfur. 397

I n separating gendaruensis, I think Mr. Bannerman must have compared with Angolan, not Loaugo specimens (see his concluding reriiarlrs Bull. B. 0. U. xliii. 1922, p. 8). I cannot separate any of our Caineroon birds, including type of gsnderueiisis, from the Loango-Nyasa series,

NOTE on the Indigo Finches. Genus Hypochem. [All specie8 resident throughout their range.]

(a) The review by Sclater and Praed in Ibis, 1918, pp. 449, 450, clears thy air a great deal, but I think that some more characters tlian those selected must be called in before ever it will be easy to diagnose the birds with confidence.

( b ) I agree with Dr.Hartert (Nov. Zool. xxviii. 1 9 2 1 , ~ . 139) that the black or brown wing-quills is one useful character, but I do not think that inetallic gloss will ever be more thnn a minor help, being too much a. matter of opinion and associated with the colour showing up better in the greens than in the purples ; and altogetAer I believe we shall have to swl\ additional aid, a?, for iiist:ince, froiti the female and young, before we get a really satisfactory clnssification. Also ii rriucli larger series than are a t present in the British Museum and Tring collections are wanted. This ought to be an easy matter-the Indigo Finches are conimon little village birds in the Sudan, and apparently elsewhere too.

(c) The groups of Sclater and Praed are readily enough followed in their centres, but when it comes to their out sides it seems to me difficult to know with which group on2 ought to be dealing. To explain illy meaning, let me present the group in a different way.

(d) Lay out all the adult, inalrs of' the various lrincls in :I

row according to colour-sequence of the solar spectruin, i. e. from violet (=purple) to green, and express their colour- differences in shade units, one shade being the smallest colour-difference perceptible t o the average person when the birds are ltiid out thus, and we get something like what is shown in the following tahle.

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=

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ann.

9.

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ade.

B

luis

h-pu

rple

, 1

shd

e.

Pur

ple and

blue

, 1

shad

e.

Blu

e,

1 sh

ade.

B

lack

ish-

blue

, 1

shad

e.

Dar

k gr

eeni

sh-b

lue.

1

shad

e.

Gre

enis

h-bl

ue,

1 sh

ade.

B

luis

h-gr

een,

1 sh

ade.

B

lubh

-gre

en.

G-E

N

end.

Lit

tle.

B

row

n.

Lit

tle.

B

row

n.

Mod

erat

e.

Bro

wn.

Mod

erat

e.

Bla

ckis

h-br

own.

Str

ong.

B

row

nish

-bla

ck.

Str

ong.

B

lack

.

Mod

erat

e.

Bro

wn.

Mod

erat

e.

Bro

wn.

Mod

erat

e. Bhk.

Mod

erat

e.

Bla

ck.

Mod

erat

e.

Bro

wn.

mm

. 67

65

65

67

60

64

67

6 5

63

69

65

East A

fric

an H

ighl

and

and

mos

t of

the

Sou

th-

east

Vel

d D

istr

icts

(do

wn

to L

at. 30° s

.).

Ang

olan

Hig

hlan

d an

d S

outh

Con

go S

avan

a D

istr

icts

. U

pper

Gui

nea

and

Suda

nese

Sav

ana

Dis

tric

t@.

r"

Ead

Afr

ican

Hig

hlan

d D

istr

ict.

w

.

Aby

ssin

ian

Hig

hlan

d D

istr

icts

. L

ado.

@

r

2 z 1 -- c

Eas

tern

pm

t of

Sud

anes

e A

rid

and

Sav

ana

and

Cen

tral

par

t of

Sud

anes

e A

rid

Dis

tric

ts.

Eas

t A

fric

an

Hig

hlan

d an

d no

rthe

rn

part

of

Sou

thea

st

Vel

d an

d S

outh

wes

t A

rid

Dis

- tr

icts

. La

do.

c? U

bang

i Sav

ana

Dis

tric

t.

w

Wes

tern

par

t of

S

udan

ese

Ari

d an

d Sa

vana

2

Nor

th I

lhod

esia

.

Nor

th N

iger

ia a

nd L

ado

!

Dis

tric

ts.

n

H

z *

Usi

ng t

he terminology of

wat

er-c

olou

r pig

men

ts, t

he c

olou

r of

a2l

. the

kin

ds is, li

ke t

he a

ppro

pria

te E

ngli

sh n

ame,

Ind

igo

j

forf

icw

rea,

add

a tr

ifle

of

crim

son-

lake

; fo

r u

ltra

mar

im, o

f F

renc

h bl

ue ; fo

r nig

eria

, of

viri

dian

. u1

1926 .] Birds of i Y o 4 and . C & d Ilaifur, :199

( e ) The table is not a proposed cliissification, but is intended t o present some facts bearing on the classification of the group, and to explain the contetitions of piiragraplis (u) and (e), which i t does by showing how a view of the group from a different angle may tnake ultra~narina and newnanni appear very near one another instead of well seprratecl. (f) Note p i t r t i (~ul :~r l~ the overlap of the three different

kinds at Lado (Tring Mus., coll. Einin, all in Angiist-different years) proving them to be diff‘erent species, which cannot be said for certain yet of a11 the other Iiintls. For this reason it is very desirable to get overl:ip, 50 thrit rather large series are wanted from each locality.

NOTIC on Pytelia ntelbu citerior. Tlte descriptions given by Sclatcr and Prnetl of the riices

of P . tzellm ( 1 his, 1318, pi). 451-453) as then known has seemed to me to fultil require~neiits excellently : throuph- out its wide range citerior has considerable xiriation in the vigour of its bright colours iind breast-barring5 but the sum of characters given, particultirly that of’ t l i e white unbarred lower tid-coverts, make matters eahj enougli for citerior.

But I\ ith regard to the distribution given f o r sarlanenuis, I was * not quite satisfied, becaiiae for tlie race to oliunge :it

the Nile after having run unchanged all the way from Senegal is so inuch out ot’ line with tilost such-like arid belt species, and for the following reasons :-

Firstly, the specimens from ltoseirer, Kamisa, 8enga, ail41 Seitniw, like those from Khartoum, all seemed to me to Le cite?&.

Secondly, I could firid no evidence of any race of P. melba having occurred in northern Abyssinia, either from Blanford or from any other collectors there, arid the ‘‘ Abyssinia” of von 13euglin’a day ae a lociility does not always correspond with the Abyssinian Plateau or with the

I speRk in the p s t tense, for Mr. Sclater has recently favoured me with s o i m recent conclusions he has arrived nt in connection with his work on the ‘ Systems Aviuin Ethiopicirrnm,’ which put what I am about to any of citeride distribution practically in line with his lateet deteruiinationa.


political Abyssinia of‘ today. P . nielba seems everywhere a bird of comparatively low altitudes and to occur all round the base of the Abyssinian Plateau (commonly called “North Abyssinia ” in current ornitlrological litmature), but not high up or on it *.

Thirdly, the Eritreaii specimens rrferred to seemed to m e interinediate botween citerior and the next separable race (under a “ sepnrate 75-per-cent. convention ”), vix. that with the characters given in Sclater and Praed’s kirki, dominant in South Ethiopia and Kenya Colony.

This little distritiutional difficulty is dissipated in the following classification, since Pytelia melba is another of those resident hirds wliose bush-loving propensities make for :L wide diytribution :rnd for very g r , i d ~ i ; t l c1i:itigc of‘ fortti.

Subsp. 1 a. P. m. citerior Strickl. Contr. Om. 1852, p. 51 : typ. loc. Kssa-

manse River, Senegambia. Ad. 8 with red restricted t o upper throat; below

very pale, belly almost white ; breaat-baud clear yellow (Scl. & Pr.),

Range. The Sudanese Arid and Savanlt belts ; fusing to the eastward with so7cdranerraia.

1 n > l b. P. jessei

1 b>l a.

Subsp. 1 b.

Shelley, Bull. B. 0. C. xiii. 1903, p . 76 : typ. IOC.

lntermediatos occurring in the Upper Nile Prova.

P. m. soudanensis Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit, Mus. xiii. 1890, p. 298 : typ. loo. Khartoum P or Upp. Nile. (Type in B. M.)

Shelley, Bull. B. 0. C. xiii. 1903, p. 76 : typ. be . Lamu. (Type in Brit. Mus.)

Ad. with red of face extending to the cheeks and well down the throat, breast faintly tinged with green, underparts boldly barred ; lower tail-coverts generally barred to somo extent (Scl. & Pr.).

Raiige. South Ethiopia, Western Somali, Kenya Colony ; fusing to the northward with citerior, and to the weetward and southward with coiirncli and/or belli.

* There is one racord from near Adis Ababa, but that is oiily just on the southern edge of the Plateau. Rolam and I never saw oil+ there during our three weeks’ stay last gear.

-f The point about the naiiie is that, although the typ. loc. of P. m. soudanensicr is unknown, its type-ppecimen agrees almost exnctly with tha t of P. m. kirki; and since the original descriptions of both also apply to either bird, Mr. Sclater tells me the older name of the two. ought to be used.

Anseba River, Eritroa. (Type in Brit. Mus.)

=P. m. ?iirki t

-

1926.1 Birds of North and Central Barfur. 401

NOTE on Pyroiiielana Aordacea. Fire-crowned Bishop-bird. [? Resident throughout its rsnge.]

According to Sclater and Fraud, Ibis, 1918, p. 457, there is- still no material for naming the race of the S.E. Sudan birds.

It seems to ine that the white under tail-coverts of southern Ethiopian birds is quite a good character for craspedopterus- Bp. (vide Ogilvie-Grant, Jbis, 1913, ‘p. 5641, but that the depth of the black frontal band is much too variable (in hordacea) to warrant i t being taken for a racial character, as proposed in Neuniann’s pet i t i .

In Uarfur about 10 per cent. of ad. 8 i iodzcea have the parts of the suinmer plumage, which are norinally scarlet,, orange, and I notice it similar tendency in examples froin West Africa and Nigeria ; bnt this is clenrly :it1 individual, not racial, quality, and gives the itnpression of resulting fro111 a pnrtinl failure of the ycnrlet ; ~ n d introduction of a little. yellow pigment in w h a t are pr l inps less vigorous birds.

Belgian Congo specimens of horducea seem to be very richly pigmented in the aggregite, following the orthodox rule for the moister clinintth, and i t might be found useful to separate them.

Breeding males of P. liordacea a n d P. fmncisrana have strikingly orangs-red-coloured livers, that organ being, in fact, full of pigment, which, when expressed 011 to paper or, as we did, on the labels of some of our spcciinens, leaves a rich permanent orange-red stain.

NOTE on illuscicapa (Alseonax) gatnbagce. In Gclater & Praed, Ibis, 1918, p. 701. Muscicapa somaliensis

Bann. was ideii tified with Aheonax gambagce Alex. Mr. Ban- nerniaii has shown me that tlris is riot so, and that the two birds, though very close to one another, are separable racially. They seem to tile best classified as follows : under Muscicapa, for although these birds have the somewhat longer first and shorter second primary cliaracteristic (in part) of AZseonaa, in other reapects both the spotted young and the adult with obscurely-streaked forehead are extremely like At. striatu,

4 02 Adiniral 11. L p e s o n the [Ibis,

and furnish an excellent illustration of tlie gradation of the Alseonax group into that of which Muscicapa striata is a $representative species, and of the view, expressed by Dr. Hartert in Viig. pal. Faun. i. p. 473, that Alseonax*is not separable by external characters from Muscicapa.

The external characters of yambagce are strongly suggestive of its evolution out of a Jf. striata form through sedentary habit.

Species. Muscicapa gambagre. Resident ; frequenting light woodland iii

. the more fertile parts of the Sudanese and Soinali arid districts ; breeding i n suininer (June and July). Sexes xlilre, the female slightly the smaller.

Subsp. 1 a. M. g. gambagae Alex. Bull. B. O.C. xii. 1901, p. 11: typ. loc.

Ad. d wing 73+1, tail 53+1. (Type and co- Gambaga, Gold Coast hinterland.

type only examined ; no others available.) Range. Only known from the typ. loo. (April and

la;lb. JUlY). _ . Ala.eonnr gnmbags Lynes, Ibis, 1925, p. 121, Central Darfur.

Ad. d wing 74+_1, tail 5751. Subep. l b .

M. g. somaliensis (Bann.) Bull. B. 0. C. XXV. 1909, p. 20. Bill rather smaller and tail rather longer ; below

perhaps rather whiter and more marked (more gambaga, are required to decide this).

(4 examined.)

Ad. d wing 74 + 2, tail 59 & 2. Range. Weghar Yts., N. Somali; Sanaa, Mta. of

(12 examined.)

Yemen, S.W. Arabia ; Lobor, N. Uganda.

NOTE on Crag-Martins. Ptyorioprogne (Riparia).

I regret, being unable to offer concrete p r o p o d s for the classificiition of the (‘rag-RIartins. Further exaniination of the group shows me it was not wise, in naming our Darfur bird, to have selected .fuEiguZa for its specific name, and, further, I would strongly advocate for the group tbe generic name of Ptyonoprogns, as nsed in B. of S. Afr. (Stark and .Selater) and Ftiirne Brit. India (Ontes). The Crag-Martins lorn1 ;in excellent natural asseinblugo very well differentiated

1926.1 Bids qf ,Tort11 miti CPntral f la r f i t r . 403

from the Sand-Martins (Ripar iu or Cotile) in habitat, nest, and eggs, and in colour-pattern by its white tail-spots.

Botli groups have English names of long standing, thoroughly descriptive of their propensities--facts by no means to be despised when considering how to classify the groups. In this inatter I quite agree with Mr. Roberts's view, expressed in Anti. Transv. Miis. viii. pt. i v . 1!)22, p. 223.

With regard to the species 1'. rupestris, Dr. Hartert h i s

put its clairris to specific distinction in Nov. Zool. ssviii. p. 112, and xxxi. p. 20. It, is known to be iiiigrntory in (at least) many parts of its range, h a s an overlap in hreecling range with obsoleta, and is recognizable froin all the other (:rag-Martins by its well-spotted chin and upper throat.

There sretns no doubt that riqmtria n i m t be regarded :LS IL

s e p r a t e species. But i t is dificult to see how the reinaintlrr ought to be dealt with. All, except oholeta in Sind *, have the repulation of being resident, or' at most moving only locally, throughout their range.

Except for the IargefiLZiguZa of South Africa, whose size and geograp11ic:d sepnratioii (but little elie) renderi it distinct enough. all are of much the same size and colour- pattern, and all except obsoleta show a tendency towards elimination of'the white spot on the next-central pair of tail- ferithers. The characters of size, colour, arid colour-pattern in the various kinds difl'er in degree, but nothing else ; the pale grey obsoleta of Hufhuf and Upper Egypt loolis quite a different species from the nearly black bansoensis of the Banso Mts. or corbcolor of the Indian Plain, but between those species, and arranged more or less in geographical sequence, occur the intermediately tinted spatti, buchanani, pusilla, and rufyula, all of which seeiii to me, so far as specimens go, to tiiorr or less grade into one another.

The table on pp. 404, 405 is given to illustrate this. The birds are placed in sequence of colour-tint from pale

* See Ibis, 1922, p. 660. Dr. Ticehurst considers it quite likely that

t o darli.

the movement is only an altitudinsl one.

Bir

ds.

Plac

es.

obso

leta

...

...._

.... N

ubia

, E

gypt

, Pa

les-

ti

ne,

Red

Sea

coa

st,

Yem

en,

Ade

n,

Mns

- ca

t,

Om

an,

Hnf

huf,

Soco

tra,

W

agha

r,

Sind

, B

eluc

hiat

an,

Afg

hani

stan

, N

.W.

Fron

tier

Pro

vinc

e.

spat

zi .

......

.. ....

.. H

ogga

r M

ts.

buch

anan

i ...

......

A

sben

Mts

. (s

outh

to

pusi

lla.

. . . . . .

. . . .. .

.. A

byss

inia

, S.

Eth

iopi

a,

Aga

des)

.

and

Dar

fur.

(Uga

nda,

Ken

ya C

olon

y,

N.

Nig

eria

, Fr

ench

I E

quat

oria

l Afr

ica.

Col

orat

ion.

Smal

l B

irds

. A

bove

and

bel

ow, p

ale

to v

ery

pale

, pe

rhap

s va

ryin

g ac

cord

ing

to c

olou

r of

env

iron

men

t ;

bird

s fr

om H

ufhu

f an

d N

ubia

on

ligh

t sa

ndy

soil

are

pale

st,

thos

e fr

om A

den

on d

ark

volc

anic

soi

l as

dark

as

any.

C

hin

and

thro

at p

lain

, ve

ry r

arel

y a

few

obs

o-

lete s

trir

e on

the

form

er.

Mir

ror o

n ne

xt-c

entr

al

tail

-fea

ther

s, a

bsen

t $

s~

~l

y exzi

ed.

in P

er c

ent.

smsu

er).

of b

irds

.

I+

0

t+

Inse

para

ble

from

the

leas

t pal

e obsoleta.

Bet

wee

n D

arfu

r bi

rds

and

spat

ei.

A d

ark

bird

. A

bove

, col

d so

oty-

brow

n ;

belo

w,

rath

er s

tron

gly

suff

used

cin

nam

un,

shad

ing

to s

ooty

-bro

wn

on f

lank

s an

d si

des,.

C

hin

and

thro

at a

s ob

sole

ta.

Dar

fur

bird

s a

litt

le p

aler

tha

n A

byss

inia

n.

A v

ery

dark

bir

d.

Abo

ve, d

eep

soot

y-br

own

wit

h bl

acki

sh h

ead-

top ;

belo

w, e

tron

gly

suf-

fu

sed

cinn

amon

dow

n to

bre

ast,

else

whe

re

stro

ng s

ooty

-bro

wn.

C

hin

and

thro

at w

ith

obso

lete

stri

ae i

n 50

per

ce

nt. o

f in

divi

dual

s ; o

ther

s pl

ain

(Wes

tern

bir

ds run a

trif

le s

mal

ler t

han

east

ern.

) N

orth

A

ngol

a (P

nngo

Pr

ecis

ely

like

Ken

ya C

olon

y bi

rds.

N

dong

o pi

., vi

i., A

n-

sorg

e), Shire

Hig

h-

! lands *.

72

Nil,

exc

ept i

n on

e fr

om S

ocot

ra.

119 f 4

30 p

er c

ent.

118+

1 6

75 p

er c

ent.

113k3

8 (i

ncl. t

ype)

. 65 p

er c

ent.

11

7f4

25

(one

129

!).

60 p

er c

ent.

11

52

5

19

60 p

er c

ent.

11.5

k5

7

3

eone

otor

, . .

.. . . .

. . In

dian

Pl

ain

(Pun

jab,

A

noth

er v

ery dark b

ird.

A

bove

like

ru&

tda

; 75

per

cen

t. 10

9+c

(inc

l. 36 ty

pe).

\D u

Uni

ted

Prov

ince

s,

belo

w s

ti d

arke

r, t

he s

trong

soot

y-br

own

(fai

nt a

nd b

liur

ed

Ben

gal,

Raj

puta

na,

carr

ied

righ

t up

to th

e th

roat

. in

the

othe

rs).

B

omba

y, M

adra

s).

0

U

+uJi

gula

barn

oen.&

C

amer

oons

: ty

pe - l

oo.

Abo

ve d

arke

st o

f al

l, so

oty-

blac

k ;

belo

w li

ke

60 p

er c

ent.

113+

1 5

Ban

n. B

ull.

B.O

.C.

Bam

enda

, Ban

so M

ts.

ru$g

rsln

, bu

t a

trif

le r

iche

r. (f

aint

and

blu

rred

xl

iv. 1

923,

p. 5

. (P

ace

Ban

nerm

an,

op.

cit.

, th

e M

anen

guba

in

the

oth

ers)

. 2 & 3

Cam

eroo

n bi

rd s

eem

s to

me

inse

para

ble.

)

e

fi~l

igu

la a&

rsam

i. D

amar

alan

d to

Mos

sa-

Mer

ely

a so

mew

hat

pale

r ed

ition

of

icbi

gidn

;

Nil.

13

1+4

12

;?

Q

and

Nam

aque

land

. 3

&L

c,

fuli

gula

fuZ

igul

a ..

Cap

e Pr

ovin

ce,

Nat

al,

Muc

h lik

e pu

sill

a, b

ut a

tri

fle

war

mer

abo

ve,

Nil.

13

0 _+. 5

3"

T

rans

vaal

. an

d co

nsid

erab

iy w

arm

er b

elow

; th

e ci

nna-

s

mon

str

onge

r. h

%

5

<

La

rge

Bir

ds.

med

es (S

. Ang

ola)

. fu

sing

into

that

form

abo

ut G

riqu

alan

d W

est

* Chin a

nd t

hroa

t w

ith o

bsol

ete

stri

ae in

50

per

cent

. of

indi

vidu

als ;

oth

ers plain

(aa r

ufig

ulm

).

R -

NO

TE

.-FrO

m

desc

ript

ion

in A

nn.

Tra

nsv.

Mns

. viu

. pt.

iv.

1922

, p.

224,

it

seem

s pro

babl

e th

at P

. fd

igu

la p

reto

ris

Rbt

s.,

3.

typ.

loc.

Pre

tori

a, i

s no

mor

e th

an t

he d

arke

r ty

pica

l fo

rm.

Sout

h A

fric

an b

ird

? H

ow is

ruj

igul

a co

ncer

ned

here

with

the

lar

ge

* M

r. B

elch

er, I

bis,

192

5, p

. 803

, rec

ords

R. r

u&ul

a as

con

imon

on

ever

y ou

tuta

udiu

g hi

ll of

the

Shi

re H

ighl

ands

, but

we

have

no

epec

imen

s fro

m n

earl

y so

far

sout

h on

the

east

sid

e of

Afr

ica.

iF

L 0

v1

406 O n the Identity of Trochilus sparganurus. [Ibis,

XV.-On the Idetitity of Trochilus sparganurus Sliaw. By A. L. BUTLEI{, M.B.O.U.

I FIND that ornithologists have been in error in their identification of the Bar-tailed Hummingbird, T2-odilm spaiyanurcts Shaw, Gen. Zool. vol. viii. 1811, p. 291,

I have recently had an opportunity of examining the type in the Liverpool Miiseiini3 arid it is identical with the species subsequently described by Gould (P. 2. S. 1847, p. 31) as cometes phaon.

The following changes of aames are therefore necessary :-

Sappho phaon (Gould) must beconie Sappho sparganum (Shaw), while

Sappho sparganura aixctorum (nec Shaw) will take the name of Sappho suplm (Less.) = Ovnisnzyn sapho Lesson, Man. Orn. ii. 1828, p. 82, and Hist. Nat., Oh.-Mouches, 1829, pp. xiii and 105, pls. 27 ( 8 ) and 28 ( ).

There is no room for doubt that the bird in the Liverpool Museum is the actual specimen described by Shaw when it was in Bullock’s Museum. I t was Lot 101 on the 19th day of Bullock’s sale, June lst, 1819, described as ‘‘ Bar- tailed Humming-bird of Shaw, from Mexico. The only one in Europe.” It fetched g 1 5 15s. On., the purchaser being Lord Stanley, afterwards 13th Earl of Derby, who bequeathed his extensive zoological collections to the Liverpool Museum. The bird was labelled in Lord Derby’s collection “No. 1683. Ex coll. Bullock, 1819 [Brazil] .” Its Liverpool Museum number is D (= Derby coll.) 1163.

Were further evidence of its identity required, it is to be found in the bird’s exact agreement in attitude with Shaw’s illustration, which shows that the specimen had only the three longest feathers on each side of the tail. This defect is also noted by Lathaiii and by Loddigss, who examined the bird in Lord Stanley’s collection in September 1827.

PI. 39.

I 926.] 0lritunl.y. 407

Loddiges also made a small sketch of i t which agrees well with Shaw’s figure. In the time which has elapsed since then, one side of the tail has been further damaged, the end of the outer feather now being broken off on a level with the next, and the third feather from the outside being also missing.

It is significant that Loddiges noted “ the red of the tail is more of the Ruby than in Miss P.’S.’’ This refers to a bird then in the posvussion of a Miss Paroissien which wae afterwards given to him, the Ornistnya sapho of Lesson. The length and curve of the bill in Shaw’s figure-the only distinction which could be shown in a black-and-white iIlustratioi!-also distinctly suggest its identity with G ~ - o u ~ ~ ’ s phaon.

The typo has a bill of 22.5 inin. and a wing of 66 mm.

The Loddiges MS. also contains a good sketch (dated July 5, 1828) of the bird in the Paris Museum which is the t,ype of Omismya sapho Lesson, agreeing well, though drawn from a different tingle, with P1. 27 in the “ 0ise:tux- Mouches.” Loddiges notes that “ tho Paris Museum pur- chased the pair from Verreaux, Boulevard Montmartre Nro. 6, for Fcs. 550.” Presumably Verreaux had them from Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Iiy whoin they were collected.

XVL-Obituary.

WILLIAM BATESON. Dr. William Bateson, who died 0x1 8 February last a t his

residence at Merton, though not ail ornithologist, was one of’ the greatest of English biologists arid the pioneer of research in variation and heredity.

The son of the Rev. W. H. Bateson, D.D., Master of St. John’s College, Cambridge, William Bateson was born

SER. XI1.-VOL. 11. 2 E

on the birds of north and central darfur. taxo-nomic appendix –part iii-x

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