BIEDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 239 



change from the barred plumage of immaturity (ju venal stage) to 

 the adult type in one molt, thereby assuming the final plumage stage 

 in the second year. However, when in fresh first adult plumage, the 

 female birds have dull brownish tips to many of the feathers 

 of the throat and breast, and their age may be told in this way. 

 The female from Aletta has such feathering. Of course, with wear, 

 the first adult plumage becomes indistinguishable from subsequent 

 ones. The male from Aletta is in postjuvenal molt and has a rather 

 curious appearance as a consequence, being about half in one stage, 

 half in the other. 



TURTUR AFER MEARNSI Sclater and Mackwoith-Praed 



Turtur afer mearnsi Sclater and Mackwoeth-Peaed, Ibis, 1920, p. 836: 

 Roguecha, near Adis Abeba, Ethiopia. 



SpeciTnens collected: 



Male, Sadi Malka, Ethiopia, January 29, 1912. 



As pointed out by Sclater and Mackworth-Praed,*'^ there are two 

 species of blue-spotted doves which occur in the same areas in 

 Ethiopia — a black-billed, lighter-backed bird with a vinaceous-pink 

 breast and a pure bluish-gray occiput and nape — T. abyssinkus : and 

 a darker-backed species with a longer, stouter, yellow-tipped bill, a 

 brownish-gray occiput and nape, and a brownish-tinted breast — 

 T. afer. While the two have similar geographic ranges on a map, 

 in reality, the lighter form, abyssinicus is more a denizen of the 

 desert scrub and arid barrens generally than is the darker afer. 

 The latter is found in all sorts of country except dense forest 

 and, while occurring to some extent in the ecological habitat of 

 <ibyssinicus^ is more restricted to less arid savanna or grassy coun- 

 try. The two species are very closely related, and were it not for 

 the fact that they not infrequently occur side by side, might be even 

 considered conspecific. 



Sclater^" recognizes three forms of T. afer^ as follows: 



1. T. afer afer. — From Senegal to Portuguese Guinea and probably 

 to the Bahr el Ghazal. The only additional evidence that has come 

 to my notice is negative; that is, Lynes ^^ did not find this bird in 

 T)arfur, a fact which raises some doubt as to its reaching the Bahr el 

 Ohazal. 



2. T. afer kilimensis. — From Sierra Leone to Angola, eastward to 

 Uganda, Kenya Colony, Nyasaland, Southern Khodesia, and the 

 Zambesi Valley. The range of this form in East Africa is interest- 



*» Ibis, 1920, p. 835. 



"Syst. Avium Ethiop., 1924, p. 172. 



"Ibis, 1925, p. 577. 



