. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. Birds. 139 [Bull. Brit. Orn. CI 1984 104 (4)] Subsequently motitensis and iagoensis were considered to belong to the same species, together with 4 other races of Rufous Sparrows: cordofamcus from Sudan, insulans from Socotra and Abd el Kuri islands, rufocinctus from Kenya and northern Tanzania and shelleyi from northeast Uganda to southern Ethiopia and Somalia, Fig. 1 (Mayr & Greenway 1962, Hall & Moreau 1970). As Smith's earlier (1836) publication was overlooked and his first description attributed to a later report (1848), the name Pass
. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. Birds. 139 [Bull. Brit. Orn. CI 1984 104 (4)] Subsequently motitensis and iagoensis were considered to belong to the same species, together with 4 other races of Rufous Sparrows: cordofamcus from Sudan, insulans from Socotra and Abd el Kuri islands, rufocinctus from Kenya and northern Tanzania and shelleyi from northeast Uganda to southern Ethiopia and Somalia, Fig. 1 (Mayr & Greenway 1962, Hall & Moreau 1970). As Smith's earlier (1836) publication was overlooked and his first description attributed to a later report (1848), the name Passer iagoensis was thought to have precedence; this error has ony been corrected comparatively recently (Clancey 1964) and the species is now described as Passer motitensis (A. Smith) 1836. o* 10* 30* 40" 50* E. Fig. 1. Distribution of African Rufous Sparrows: 1 iagoensis, 2 cordofaniens, 3 insularis, 4 shelleyi, 5 rufocinctus, 6 motitensis. A number of authorities have considered iagoensis to be separate from motiten- sis: van Someren (1922) considered shelleyi to be the closest of the African mainland Rufous Sparrows to iagoensis, but placed shelleyi, together with rufo- cinctus, cordofamcus and motitensis, as specifically distinct from iagoensis; Lynes (1926) gave specific status to all 6 populations; Grant & Mackworth-Praed (1944) recognised 4 species — motitensis, insularis, rufocinctus and iagoensis — iagoensis being separted largely because of its much finer bill; Bannerman (1948) considered iagoensis to be distinct from all the mainland African species and Macdonald (1957) was of the opinion that the southern African motitensis and iagoensis were separate species. Observations I have made on the Rufous Sparrows in Kenya, southern Africa, where the bird is known as the Great Sparrow, (Summers-Smith 1983) and the Cape Verde Islands (to be published) have led me to the conclusion that the birds from the Cape Verde Archipelago are sufficiently differentiated from
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