BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 45 



of atlults are practically all slaty black while the young, from head to ruff, 

 are mixed with large areas of greenish flesh color; in one specimen the slaty 

 black only appearing as occasional spots (somewhat tinged with reddish) on 

 the lower neck. In the oldest specimen, an adult female (skin preservetl) the 

 upper side of the wing, the primaries, secondaries, and longest tertials are 

 grayish black, as are the bastard wing and outermost greater wing converts ; 

 rest of upper side of wing and upper back cinereous, the feathers bordered 

 with pale buff. Back and rump white, as is the long, furry down covering the 

 skin between the feather tracts ; tail grayish black above and below. Thighs 

 externally cinereous buff or clay color, internally coated with pure white down ; 

 crop patch dark brown. An inconspicuous neck ruff, above only, is whitish 

 drab, not much paler than the upper back. Underside of body pale drab, 

 the feathers having slight indications of a whitish shaft streak ; under wing- 

 coverts white, the greater ones broadly tipped or subterminally barred with 

 grayish black ; under tail-coverts brownish black. An adult male and an adult 

 female differ only in having the under surface of the body less uniform pale 

 drab, the feathers showing distinct traces of writish shaft streaks ; rump slightly 

 tinged with clay color. These birds are probably not quite so fully adult as 

 the female described above. Adults when on the wing show the white backs 

 very clearly, or the white under wing-coverts, according to position in the air. 

 Immature birds, of course, appear all dark. The four immature specimens 

 differ from adults in lacking the white back and rump and the white under 

 wing coverts. The upper wing-coverts are dark brown, more or less bordered 

 with drab. The under wing-coverts, outer aspect of thighs, back, and rump 

 are dark brown with broad, dirty white streaks. 



Swann " writes the wing length of the adult is 557 millimeters. 

 However, an immature bird from Adis Abeba has a wing 674 milli- 

 meters in length, and Erlanger, Granvik, and others have recorded 

 birds with this dimension amounting to 600 and 640 millimeters. 

 It may be that Swann's figure is due to a typographical error and 

 should read 657. 



The acrotarsium is usually covered with small hexagonal or cir- 

 cular scales, but occasionally adjacent scales fuse, forming elongate, 

 oblong, somewhat transverse, scutes, suggesting the frontal scutes of 

 some hawdcs such as Ilaliaeetus, Buteo, etc. Only a single specimen 

 (U.S.N.M. No. 243537) of the series examined shows any of these 

 fused scales, but it has three of them. 



This vulture is abundant and widely distributed throughout the 

 region covered by the Frick expedition. The following observations 

 are taken from Mearns' diary: Aletta, March 7-13, 30 birds; Loco, 

 March 13-15, 30 seen; Gidabo River, March 15-17, 4; the Abaya 

 Lakes, March 18-26, 66 noted; near Gardula, March 26-29, 4 birds. 

 Strangely enougli, although IVIearns spent a long time (INIarch 29 to 

 May 17) on the Gato River near Gardula, he did not record this 

 bird there a single time. Dokato village and Kormali, May 18, 100 

 seen ; Bodessa and Sagon River, May 19 to June 6, 78 birds ; Tertale, 

 June 7-12, 29 noted; El Ade, June 12, 25 seen; Mar IMora, June 



"Synopsis of the Accipitrcs, ed. 2, 1922, p. 8. 



