252 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Kenya Colony. — Nairobi, Ngong, Kyambu, Eakiiyu, Chuka, Embu, 

 Nyeri, Gilgil, Mount Kenia, Machakos, Morroshura, Mau, Mole, 

 Ssubugo Forest, Fort Smith, Escarpment, Eldoma Kavine, Burnt 

 Forest, Elgeyu, Londiani, Sotik Forest, Mount Mbololo, Mount 

 Uraguess, and Mount Elgon, 



The large series of birds examined indicates no sexual differences 

 either in color or in size. The variations in size are as follows: 

 Wing, 153-180; tail, 179-203; culmen from base, 21-25 millimeters. 

 The average measurements are: Wing 170, tail 189, and culmen 23 

 millimeters. 



A Juvenal bird, not more than a few days out of the nest (if not 

 actually taken from the nest), collected on December 20, 1926, at 

 Lushoto, Usambara Mountains, is interesting. It is dorsally covered 

 with dark blackish down except on the wings, tail, and lateral in- 

 terscapulars which have pennaceous, ju venal feathers, dark blue in 

 color, becoming blacker on the remiges and rectrices. The down 

 of the underparts is dark brownish or brownish fuscous, lightest 

 and least fuscous on the throat and chin; darkest on the breast and 

 anterior part of the abdomen and on the sides and flanks. The 

 point of greatest interest, however, is the distribution of the red 

 color in the remiges. This has been described before * but may be 

 briefly repeated. In adult birds the red color occurs in all but the 

 outermost (first pair of) primaries and the innermost secondaries, 

 and extends nearly to the tips of the feathers. In the young bird 

 it occurs only in primaries three to nine inclusive (counting from the 

 outside) and is basal in distribution, not extending half way to the 

 tips of the feathers. It is also more orange, less bright reddish than 

 in adult birds. 



Lonnberg ^ describes fully fledged young birds as being less glossy 

 than the adult, with the white on the head less developed, and with 

 greenish margins to the blue feathers of the upper parts. " The red 

 of the wing is confined to the basal half of the primaries, the second- 

 aries being bluish black all over. The red color of the wing is also 

 different in the young bird, being more scarlet than crimson." 

 Oberholser ® similarly describes a young T. hartlaubi. 



Judging by the plumage variations and stages of molts shown by 

 the series examined, it appears that in the postjuvenal molt the 

 secondaries are replaced but the juvenal primaries are retained, 

 thereby affording a means of identifying year-old birds (immature) 

 from those two years or more in age (adults). Superficially the 

 immature birds look like adults, and the only character that serves to 

 identify them is the very broad terminal brownish-blue-black area 



*■ Friedmann, Ibis, 1928, p. 79. 



"Kungl. Sv. Vet. Akad. Handlgr., vol. 47, no. 5, 1911, pp. 62-63. 



8 Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 28, 1905, p. 849. 



