BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 283 



more or less of this staining present. Fortunately, meridionalis has 

 been ignored or overlooked by all writers, and has not materially 

 added to the confusion in the literature. 



The two nestlings from Gato River, are somewhat doubtfully re- 

 ferred to this species and not to C. monachus^ which was also collected 

 there, but their identification is j^robably correct. They have long, 

 filamentous, unbranching white trichoptiles on the upper parts, and 

 practically none on the underside, the few present being very small, 

 varying from 0.5 to 1.5 millimeters in length. Those on the dorsum 

 measure from 14 to 28 millimeters in length. The dorsal skin is dull 

 black, the ventral yellowish merging into blackish laterally. Lonn- 

 berg ^ has described the pterylosis of a nestling coucal (perhaps G. 

 leuGogaster) and has noted that the pteryla spinalis extends unbroken 

 and " * * * with about equal breadth from the nape (where it is 

 continuous with the covering of the head) to the tail * * *, Qq 

 either side of this ft. spinalis extends a broad apterium from behind 

 the ear coverts to the sides of the tail * * *." The spinal feather 

 tract in the present examples of superdliosus begins on the mid line 

 at the nape and then bifurcates slightly on the upper back and the 

 two bands unite again medially on the rump. The peculiar nature 

 of these downy feathers justifies the use of the name trichoptiles for 

 them in distinction from the ordinary neossoptiles of most birds. 



Immature birds resemble the adults on the underside but have the 

 upper parts quite different. The feathers of the top and sides of the 

 head, the nape, and interscapulars have wide buffy shaft streaks, 

 those of the interscapulars terminating distally in enlarged light 

 spots. The upper back and upper wing coverts are finely barred with 

 blackish; the remiges likewise barred, chiefly toward the distal ends, 

 the variation in this respect, and with regard to the width of the 

 black marks, being considerable; the tail feathers are more exten- 

 sively barred with white (in one bird all the rectrices are thus barred 

 throughout their entire lengths, in another, all but the outermost pair ; 

 in still another, transverse lines become indistinct about halfway 

 down the feathers) ; the bill, instead of being black as in the adults, 

 is brownish or yellowish brown. Granvik ^ writes that the rectrices 

 are more glossy greenish in young birds than in adults. This is not 

 so, as this difference is wholly one of feather age. Fresh ones are 

 glossy green, older, more worn ones are less so, and very old, abraded 

 feathers are almost brownish with practically no greenish shade. 



To judge from a series of eight birds intermediate between true 

 immature and fully adult plumage, it seems that it takes three years 

 to acquire the final type of feathering. The subadult birds resemble 

 the adults but have the remiges barred distally. However, these 



a See Granvik, Journ. f. Ornith., 1923, Sonderheft, pp. 80-82 ; Gyldenstolpe, Kuiigl. Sv. 

 Vet. Akad. Handlgr., 1924, p. 252, etc. 

 ^ Ibis, ]!IL':J, pp. 40-02. 



