244 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



lapping feathers. A considerable number of the body feathers still 

 have the downy neossoptiles attached to their distal ends. These 

 nestling feathers are whitish. 



The second plumage I have not seen, but it is described by Van 

 Someren ^- as similar to the specimen described above. Yet, the pres- 

 ence of the downy neossoptiles still clinging to the feathers of this 

 bird make it obviously impossible to consider it as anything but the 

 Juvenal plumage. 



In the adult stage the sexes are similar, but the males are more 

 vinaceous, the females more rufescent below, and the latter have the 

 forehead more grayish, less pure whitish than the former. 



The nape and shoulders vary individually, regardless of sex, 

 from purplish bronzy to bluish green, and even bright greenish. 

 The lower throat and the breast also vary from greenish bronze to 

 bright rufescent with a suggestion of a golden sheen. The birds 

 vary considerably in size, the series examined (eight birds from 

 Kenya Colony, Tanganyika Territory, and South Africa) having 

 the following wing lengths : Males 146-156 and females 141-148 

 millimeters. 



VINAGO WAALIA (Meyer) 



Columha waalia F. A. A. Meyer, Syst.-Sum. Uebers. Zool. Entdeck., p. 128, 

 1793 : Tcherkin, near Lake Tsana. 



/Specimens collected: 



Male and female, Botola, Sidamo, Ethiopia, March 5, 1912. 



Female, Aletta, Sidamo, Ethiopia, March 8, 1912. 



A series of 15 specimens from Ethiopia, British Somaliland, the 

 Sudan, and " West Africa " indicates that there are no geographic 

 races of this fruit pigeon. Neumann *^ described a form from near 

 Lake Tata, Gelo River, Sudan, which he named cinereiceps, and 

 which is not mentioned by Sclater in the Systema Avium Ethiopi- 

 carum. According to its describer, cinereiceps differs from true 

 waalia in having the head and neck pure ashy gray, almost without 

 any greenish tone ; the upper parts more olive green, less yellowish ; 

 the belly lighter yellow ; and the tarsal feathering, with only a few 

 yellow feathers, almost entirely white. West African birds are said 

 to be more like cinereiceps than waalia. This subspecies of Neu- 

 mann's has been generally overlooked by students of African birds, 

 but as the form is apparently not tenable no harm has been done 

 thereby. Sclater and Praed ^* write that they have seen no specimens 

 from the type locality, but can find no " * * * constant distinc- 

 tion in birds from the Sobat River or any other locality." Lynes " 



«=Jouin. East. Afr. and Uganda Nat. mst. Soc, January, 1928, p. 170. 

 ssjouin. f. Oinith., 1904, p. 341. 

 "Ibis, 1920, p. 826. 

 ssidem, 1925, p. 578. 



