BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 135 



Abundant in large flocks in tlie Sagon Valley. Up liere (Bodessa) tliey are 

 scarce and have different habits. They are in thiclc, heavy grass, and, when 

 flushed only fly up high enougli to clear the grass and find more open ground 

 where they can run. They are scarce, in singles or pairs, and are silent. The 

 only one I have heard was a lone bird being worried by a large goshawk. 

 It made a great outcry and puzzled the hawk, which watched the grass from 

 bush tops trying to get a chance at the bird. "When flushed it only flew about 

 six yards and was very hard to flush a second time. No eggs or young seen 

 here. 



NUMIDA MELEAGRIS MACROCERAS Erlanger 



Numida ptilorhi/nvha macroceras Eklangek, Oru. Monutsb., vol. 12, p. 97, 

 1904: Muki River. Lake Rudolf. 



Specimens collected: 



Male and female, Endoto Mountains (south), Kenya Colony, July 

 21. 1912. 



Male, Endoto Mountains (south), Kenya Colony, July 22, 1912. 



Male, immature female, Guaso Nyiro River (10 miles east of 

 Archer's post) , Kenya Colony, August 3, 1912. 



Female adult, female immature. Lekiundu River, Kenya Colony, 

 August 8, 1912. 



The plumage changes are similar to those described for Numida 

 mitrata reichenowiJ"^ The same curious retention of tlie natal down 

 on the dorsum of the head is true of this species as well. The plum- 

 ages of the two species are practically identical in the natal down, 

 Juvenal, and immature stages (according to Van Someren,^^ no 

 specimens in natal down seen by me). In fact, the two immature 

 birds listed above were identified to this form, rather than to N. 

 mitrata reicheTioici only because of the adults taken with them. The 

 nasal tufts of bristles do not appear until the subadult plumage. 

 As in reichcnowi^ the immature and subadult stages have blaclrish 

 feathers with broad white shaft stripes on the throat and upper 

 breast. 



Erlanger '^^ lists birds from the Abaya Lakes district of Ethiopia 

 as macroceras^ following Neumann.^^ 



The birds collected in that region by Mearns agree very closely 

 with the characters of major, while macroceras is a form with a 

 longer, larger helmet, and apparently does not range north into 

 Ethiopia. 



The helmet is very variable in the available series of this form. 

 In adult males (it is larger and better developed in males than in 

 females) , it attains greater lengths than indicated by Erlanger "^ 



■^See pp. 130-131. 



•".Tourn. E. Afr. and Uganda Nat. Hist. Soc, 192.5, p. 9. 



"" .Tourn. f Ornith., 1905, p. 138. 



" idem, 1904, p. 408. 



