have white tips. Current subspecies of the tropical boubou now include: West African boubou (tropical boubou in the strict sense), L. major – Sierra Leone east to Sudan, then south to the Great Lakes region, from there excluding the inner Congo basin southwest to the Scarp of Angola. Intergrades with mossambicus in the southeastern Congo Basin. Possibly hybridizes with swamp boubou (L. bicolor) in the Angola region. L. m. ambiguus – highlands of Kenya and NE Tanzania In major, long narrow wing stripe across the median and larger wing coverts, and usually continuing onto the secondary remiges; breast and belly may be pinkish (particularly in northern birds) or off-white (as in most southern birds). In ambiguus, short wings stripe across the median coverts; breast and belly pinkish. Outer tail feathers may have white tips in both subspecies. L. "m." mossambicus – S DRCongo, S Tanzania, E Zambia, Malawi, E Mozambique, N Zimbabwe. Intergrades with major in the southeastern Congo Basin. Smaller and buffier below than the northern populations. Long narrow wing stripe like in major. Outer tail feathers never have white tips. L. "m." limpopoensis – W Mozambique to S Zimbabwe and N South Africa. Hybridizes with southern boubou (L. ferrugineus) in Limpopo valley. The buffiest of all, without pink tones. Long narrow wing stripe like in major. Outer tail feathers never have white tips. These seem to be part of a close-knit and more apomorphic clade of parapatric to sympatric black-and-white (or -buff/-pinkish) boubous which mostly inhabit semihumid lowland habitat. Their relatives are Turati's boubou (L. turatii) and perhaps Luehder's bushshrike (L. luehderi), and the southern and swamp boubous. L. sublacteus seems to form a distinct southern lineage with the last two, but the southernmost tropical boubous are too little studied. It seems certain that they belong to the second group, where they may be a southward extension of L. aethiopicus, but more likely represent the southwestern populations of L. major. The hybridization is liable to confound DNA sequence analyses, particularly of mtDNA. Range and ecology The tropical boubou occurs from about 10° northern latitude south to the Limpopo River in South Africa. In the western part of its range, it is found as a regular breeder from Côte d'Ivoire eastwards to about 5° N; it is not found further south along the Atlantic coast and in the inner Congo Basin, but occurs on the Scarp of Angola. It