. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 112 Bulletin A spotted breast band in Apalis rufifrons by Melvin a. Traylor Received 19th May, 1967 In 1922 van Someren {Novit. ZooL, 29: 219) wrote that in the southern race oi Apalis rufifrons, rufidorsalts, "Full plumaged males have a series of black spots on the upper breast forming a broken collar. In females this is almost ; Since van Someren's statement, no other author has reported any specimen with a similar band, and Mackworth-Praed and Grant (1955, Bds. E. and N. E. Afr: 417) fail to mention it in their d
. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 112 Bulletin A spotted breast band in Apalis rufifrons by Melvin a. Traylor Received 19th May, 1967 In 1922 van Someren {Novit. ZooL, 29: 219) wrote that in the southern race oi Apalis rufifrons, rufidorsalts, "Full plumaged males have a series of black spots on the upper breast forming a broken collar. In females this is almost ; Since van Someren's statement, no other author has reported any specimen with a similar band, and Mackworth-Praed and Grant (1955, Bds. E. and N. E. Afr: 417) fail to mention it in their des- cription of the species. In the Field Museum there are three specimens that show this collar, two males from Lake Magadi, Kenya, and Mkomasi, Tanzania, respectively, and a female from Maungu, Kenya, the specimen that was mentioned by van Someren. In the males the band appears as a rather dense line of partially obscured dark spots, about three millimetres wide, crossing the breast just below the throat. In the female the band is barely suggested by a few spots. However, the apparent faintness of the band in the female is not due to the sparsity of spotting but to the long white fringes on the feathers which obscure the dark markings. Each of the spotted breast feathers actually has two spots, separated by the white shaft (see fig.). Bordering the whole. Figure. Breast feather of female Apalis rufifrons rufidorsalis showing the double black spots and the broad white terminal fringe. In the male the white fringe is narrower so that the spotting is more apparent. feather is an edging of white, much broader in the female than in the male. It is this broad edging which obscures the spotting of the underlying feathers and makes the band less evident. Presumably in both sexes the band becomes more evident with wear. So far all specimens exhibiting a breast band belong to the southern race rufidorsalis, and all specimens of rufifrons and smithi are immaculate creamy white below. Th
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