. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 1952 106 Vol. 72 Remarks.—The seven other examples collected on the upper slopes of Kupe Mountain have the same characters as the type. They form a uniform series and can be distinguished at a glance from M. e. ellioti on the one hand and M. e. johnstoni on the other hand. They measure :— 4 males, wing 93, 92, 91, 91 ; tail 61, 63, 62, 63 ; bill 19, 20, 20, 23 : tarsus 18, 20, 19, 18 mm. 3 females, wing 91, 90, 88 : tail 60, 61, 60 ; bill 17, 18, 17 ; tarsus 18, 19, 18 mm. In the field 31. e. kupeensis behaves like the other races. It is usually
. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 1952 106 Vol. 72 Remarks.—The seven other examples collected on the upper slopes of Kupe Mountain have the same characters as the type. They form a uniform series and can be distinguished at a glance from M. e. ellioti on the one hand and M. e. johnstoni on the other hand. They measure :— 4 males, wing 93, 92, 91, 91 ; tail 61, 63, 62, 63 ; bill 19, 20, 20, 23 : tarsus 18, 20, 19, 18 mm. 3 females, wing 91, 90, 88 : tail 60, 61, 60 ; bill 17, 18, 17 ; tarsus 18, 19, 18 mm. In the field 31. e. kupeensis behaves like the other races. It is usually encountered as a member of a mixed bird company. A female with a greatly enlarged ovary with yolking eggs was shot on 13th November, and an immature bird with a partially ossified skull was shot on 23rd January, so as in M. e. johnstoni breeding probably takes place early in the dry season. Dr. J. P. Chapin kindly examined this series of M. e. kupeensis and gave me his opinion on them. I am indebted to him. On Struthio camelus Linnaeus. By Mr. C. M. N. White. Messrs. Grant and Mack worth-Praed in Bull. 71, p. 45, 1951 propose to rename the North African Ostrich as they consider that S. camelus Linnaeus should be restricted to the Syrian population. It may be doubted whether this shift of name serves any useful purpose since there is no rule that the first of a series of localities mentioned simultaneously has any priority. There is however I believe a more definite objection to the proposed shift of name. Struthio camelus Linnaeus was a composite of two races until Rothschild split in in 1919 ; the International Rules of Zoological Nomenclature at Articles 29 and 31 lay down procedure where a genus or a species respectively is divided into two or more restricted genera or species ; there is no reference to the division of a subspecies, but the same procedure would by analogy apply. It appears to me that Rothschild as first reviser of the composite S. camelus was full
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