40 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Immature, unsexed, Hor, latitude 3° 19' N., Kenya Colony, June 

 27, 1912. 



In a series of 21 adults, ranging from Ethiopia to the White 

 Nile, eastern Belgian Congo, Kenya Colony, Tanganyika Territory, 

 and South Africa, the only variations appear to be individual or 

 due to the length of time the plumage has been worn. The chief 

 individual variation is in the amount of reddish-brown color on the 

 sides of the head, and on the neck, and in the size of the chestnut 

 patch on the breast. In some the red-brown is interrupted between 

 the eye and the bill ; in others it is continuous through the eye to the 

 base of the bill, which, in some instances is bordered all around; 

 in one or two (probably subadult) individuals there is scarcely any 

 chestnut on the head except a spot surrounding the eye ; and one or 

 two have scattered chestnut feathers all over the throat. In a gen- 

 eral way it seems that the red-brown loreal area is interrupted by 

 white more often and more extensively in adult males than in adult 

 females, but exceptions occur in both sexes. 



A young bird (U.S.N.M. 218292), unable to fly by reason of the 

 undeveloped wing quills, is about the size of an adult yellow-billed 

 duck {Anas undulata). It was taken at Hor on the northern bor- 

 der of Kenya Colony, June 27. The down feathers have disap- 

 peared except those on the tips of the primaries, which are but 

 25 to 50 millimeters in length. The wing coverts are developed, the 

 lesser being white, the middle and greater cinereous ; head all white, 

 washed with pale tawny gray on the crown, with very pale cinnamon 

 buff on the postocular region, and with tawny dusky on the cheeks; 

 upper neck, mantle, rump, and tail feathers, though quite young, 

 are colored very much as in adults but paler; upper tail coverts 

 drab ; under parts paler than in adults, with finer vermiculations on 

 the sides and without a chestnut patch on the breast; bill higher 

 and more swollen than in adults. 



In adult birds the under tail coverts vary considerably in the 

 intensity of their coloration. In some birds they are dark tawny 

 buff, while in others, regardless of sex, they are much lighter. 

 Granvik*'* writes that one of his specimens has almost white under 

 tail coverts, some with a pale yellow tint. 



The measurements of the series of adult birds in the United 

 States National Museum, made by Mearns, are as follows: 



«*Journ. fiir Ornlth., 1923, Souderheft, p. 33. 



