BIRDS OF ETHIOPL\ AND KENYA COLONY 153 



4. AduU plumaffe, which is well laiown and needs no redescription. 

 With increase in age the frontal shield becomes larger and extends 

 not onl}^ caiidally but also laterally, and in old birds entirely does 

 away with the superciliary stripes by its lateral growth. 



The molt which ushers in the adult plumage is apparently a pro- 

 longed process, beginning with the wings and tail and then extend- 

 ing to (he body. At least, as far as the material examined goes, the 

 new remiges are fully grown before the white lower breast and ab- 

 domen undergo any considerable amount of molt. The molt in 

 the latter regions is irregular and patchy, specimens taken in this 

 stage presenting a pied, blotchy ventral expanse of white and deep, 

 rich, reddish brown. Adults have lead colored feet and bluish black 

 irides, but just when, or how gradually, the change from the juvenal 

 ■ condition comes I can not say. When the superciliaries begin to 

 disappear, the process begins at the caudal end. One of Mearns' 

 specimens has only the anterior half of the superciliaries left, ending 

 at the front margin of the eye. 



The discovery that the adult plumage is not attained until the 

 second year is not new at this point. As long ago as 1906 Sclater ^° 

 suggested this as a probability, and even six years earlier Boyd 

 Alexander *^ found birds in immature plumage together with breed- 

 ing adults on the Zambezi and wrote that, " * * * it is probable 

 that these birds do not assum.e adult plumage till the second year." 



This species varies tremendously in size, large and small birds of 

 similar age being found together. Females average larger than 

 male, but even within each sex, the wing length varies about 20 

 millimeters. Gyldenstolpe "^- gives 171 millimeters as the longest 

 wing seen by him. A specimen (female) from Rhino Camp, in the 

 United States National Museum (No. 216127) exceeds this by 2 

 millimeters and is the largest one known to me. 



In the region coverecL by this report, the African jacana is wide 

 spread throughout Ethiopia, Kenya Colony, and to a lesser extent, 

 Somaliland. I know of no records from northern Somaliland, and 

 in Ethiopia the species is commoner in the western parts of the 

 country than it is east of the Rift Valley. 



In tropical east Africa the breeding season varies, being strictly 

 correlated with the rains in regions away from large permanent 

 bodies of water, and less clefinitel}^ limited around large lakes such 

 as Victoria, or even Naivasha, etc. However, it is at its height at 

 the beginning of the long rains. In Uganda and Kenya Colony nests 

 and eggs have been taken in June ; " while farther north the long 



■" Birds of S. Afr., vol. 4, 1006, p. 330. 

 "Ibis, 1900, p. 451. 



"Kungl. Sv. Akad. Handlgr., 1924, p. 299. 

 " See Van Someren, Ibis, 1916, pp. 202-203. 



