102 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



feathers of the rump, upper tail-coverts, thighs, and underparts with 

 fine black shaft streaks, while in the latter the shafts are white like 

 the vexilla. 



The African pygmy falcon is a bird of the lowlands, and conse- 

 quently is scarce or absent in large parts of the interior of Ethiopia. 

 It is not known from altitudes greater than 5,200 feet, (1.520 

 meters) . Erlanger ^° met with it in northern and southern Soma- 

 liland, the Hawash region, southern Gallaland, and southern Shoa. 

 He found birds in breeding condition in July in southern Somali- 

 land, and in January in the Sagon valley, in southern Shoa. 



Order GALLIFORMES 

 Family PERDICIDAE 



COTURNIX COTURNIX ERLANGERI Zedlilz 



Coturnix coturnix erlangeri Zedlitz, Joum. f. Ornitli., 1912, p. 244: Cunni, 

 near Harrar, Ethiopia. 



Specimens collected: 



Female, Adis Abeba, Ethiopia, January 12, 1912. 



Male, Adis Abeba, Ethiopia, January 13, 1912. 



Male, Alaltu, Ethiopia, January 16, 1912. 



Male, Arussi Plateau, Ethiopia, February 15, 1912. 



This race is characterized by the fact that the throat patch in the 

 male is dark brownish, or even blackish brown, while in afncana it 

 is reddish brown. The male from Adis Abeba is extreme in this 

 respect, having this patch deep fuscous brown ; the one from Arussi 

 Plateau is lighter, but is acquiring the dark feathers ; while the speci- 

 men from Alaltu has the throat patch itself dark brown but the 

 stripes from the postero-lateral angles of this patch to the auriculars 

 light reddish brown. It seems from this altogether inadequate series 

 that the birds have a subadult plumage similar to the adult type of 

 africana — with the throat patch and associated stripes reddish 

 brown, and that in the molt into adult plumage the patch itself is 

 molted first and then the transverse throat stripes. The male from 

 the Arussi region has many of the reddish subadult feathers mixed 

 with the new, dark ones of the adult plumage. 



The flanks vary considerably in color. The bird with the darkest 

 'throat also has the darkest flanks, the feathers of which have dark 

 fuscous longitudinal stripes on either side of the white median area 

 while in the male from the Arussi Plateau these markings are light 

 chestnut brown instead of fuscous. The other male is intermediate 

 in this respect just as it is in the color of the throat. 



sojourn, f. Ornith., 1005, pp. 224-226. 



