BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 215 



as dark as funebrea. In size it agrees with the latter. The range 

 seems to be southern Ethiopia to Turkana and northern shores of 

 Lake Kudolf. It must be admitted that Mearns' series may all refer 

 to tliis intermediate, but it is certainly impossible to draw a line 

 between them and birds from farther south, and inasmuch as the 

 size variation is so great among these specimens it seems doubtful 

 that a line can be drawn between them and north Abyssinian 

 material. 



Streptopelia lugens ranges from northern Ethiopia (Tigre dis- 

 trict) south through Shoa and Somaliland, Kenya Colony, Uganda, 

 the eastern Belgian Congo, and Tanganyika Territory to Nyasaland. 

 It breeds in forested areas chiefly (if not wholly) and therefore 

 has a rather discontinuous distribution, but when not breeding, the 

 birds gather in more open country, Acacia savannas, and even in 

 cultivated areas, so that a study restricted to museum specimens 

 taken at all times of the year would suggest that the species was 

 more widely distributed than its breeding range would indicate. 

 Inasmuch as forest areas are more or less restricted to mountainous 

 districts in eastern Africa, it follows that this pigeon is chiefly 

 a bird of the highlands. The three specimens from the Arussi 

 Plateau were taken in juniper woods at an altitude of 9,000 feet 

 (2,700 meters) . 



The series examined illustrates the plumage changes of this 

 species very well. A nestling bird in postnatal molt (taken at 

 Nairobi, June 22) shows that the natal down is light straw yellow. 

 The Juvenal plumage is dark earth brown above, each feather with 

 rufous edges and tip ; the underparts more slate gray but still quite 

 brownish, the feathers apically narrowly margined with light 

 rufous, the feathers of the throat somewhat lighter than elsewhere. 



An incomplete postjuvenal molt ushers in the immature plumage 

 which is similar to that of the adult but lacks the black crescent 

 on the sides of the neck and has the head more ashy, the back 

 darker brown, and the feathers of the body, both dorsal and ven- 

 tral, duller and narrowly edged with pale rufous tawny, the wing 

 coverts widely edged with rufous. One of the females from the 

 Arussi Plateau (February 22) is in an advanced stage of the post- 

 immature molt. Apparently this molt begins with the feathers of 

 the abdomen and lower back, then spreads to the tail and then 

 to the wings. 



Adult females average somewhat paler on the underparts than 

 males. 



This pigeon was noted on the following occasions : Aletta, March 

 7-13, 100 birds ; Gato River, March 29 to May 17, 30 ; Sagon River 

 and Bodessa, June 3-6, 1 seen; Tertale, June 7-12, 550 birds; El 



