BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 17 



the head and neck a quadricolored appearance laterally, dark brown 

 above, then a band of black, then white, and then lighter brown 

 below. The other extreme is shown by a female from Dar-es- 

 Salaam, Tanganyika Territory (M.C.Z. 133065). In this bird there 

 is no indication of a black stripe and no brownish color on the 

 underside of the head and neck, giving a bicolored appearance later- 

 ally, dark grayish brown above and white below. Both birds are 

 adults. 



Granvik^^ comments at some length on the variations in imma- 

 ture plumages. He writes, however, that adults have the " * * * 

 inner web of the last secondary supplied with a cross foid (like that 

 on the outer web of the tail feathers)." This is doubtless a slip 

 of the pen as the innermost (last) secondaries are transversely 

 striated only on their outer webs. 



Of the two specimens in the present collection, one, U.S.N.M. 

 218283, has the chin, throat, and lower neck completely washed 

 with pale cinnamon, while the other, U.S.N.M. 218282, has these 

 parts white. 



Order CICONIIFORMES 

 Family ARDEIDAE 



ARDEA CINEREA CINEREA Linnaeng 



Ardea cincrca Lijtnaejus, Syst. Nat., e<\. 10, p. 143, 1758 : Europe ; restrictetl 

 type locality, Sweden. 



Mearns noted a few individuals of the African gray heron on the 

 Hawash River, January 26 to February 13. Judging by the accounts 

 given by Heuglin, Neumann, Erlanger, and others, it seems that this 

 bird must be rather local and uncommon in northeastern Africa. 



ARDEA MELANOCEPHALA Vigors and Children 



Ardea melanocephala Vigors and CniLDREasr, in Denham and Clapperton 

 Trav. 2, App. 21, p. 201, 1826 ; probably near Lake Chad. 



Speciments collected: 



Male adult, Ethiopia, March, 1912. 



The single specimen collected is in fine adult plumage. Unfor- 

 tunately it has neither definite locality nor date. It was collected 

 by Mr. Childs Frick, probably in Sidamo Province. 



A long series of specimens from various parts of Africa (South 

 Africa, Belgian Congo, Tanganyika Territory, Kenya Colony, 

 Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Cameroon), shows no variations other 

 than individual ones. There seems to be no constant difference in 

 size between the two sexes. 



"Journ. f. Ornith., 1923, Sonderheft, p. 3d. 



