394 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Two of the birds collected are in molt. The female from tlie 

 Tharaka district, August 13, has the third primary (from the out- 

 side) only an inch or so in length, but the ones immediately proximal 

 and distal to it are old and worn, suggesting that the molt began 

 at the third primary as well as at the carpal joint, for the inner- 

 most primaries are new. This bird also shows a peculiarity in the 

 tail molt. The left member of the middle pair of rectrices is new 

 and about one-sixth grown, while the old, worn right member is 

 still present. In the case of the next pair of rectrices the opposite 

 is true. The male taken on August 21 on the Tana River has com- 

 pleted the wing molt but the ecdysis of the tail is still in process, the 

 order of feather replacement is irregular as in the female. 



The color of the throat is variable; some adults have the upper 

 part decidedly bluish, others greenish, and the lower throat and 

 upper breast is greenish in some, reddish purple in others. The varia- 

 tions are purely individual. A variation of some interest in con- 

 nection with the racial characters of another species (purjmreus) is 

 the color of the underside of the wings which is greenish in some 

 and bluish in others. 



PHOENICULUS SOMALIENSIS NEGLECTUS (Neumann) 



Irrisor erythrorhynchus neglectus Neumann, Journ. f. Ornith., 1905. p. 194: 

 Ula, Shoa. 



Specimens collected: 



Three adult males, one adult unsexed, Dire Daoua, Ethiopia, No- 

 vember 30 to December 20, 1911. 



One adult male, Moulu, Ethiopia, December 17, 1911. 



Eight adult males, 6 adult females, one immature male, one im- 

 mature female, Gato River near Gardula, Ethiopia, March 30 to 

 April 10, 1912. 



One adult male, Bodessa, Ethiopia, May 26, 1912. 



One adult male, Sagon River, Ethiopia, June 4, 1912. 



Soft parts : Iris dark brown ; bill entirely black, red on the inside 

 and at the angle of the mouth and the inferior point at the base of 

 the mandible; feet red to orange red; claws plumbeous black. 



Owing to lack of adequate material from all parts of its range, 

 I can not attempt a revision of the races of this kakelaar and there- 

 fore follow Sclater's arrangement.^ There still is considerable di- 

 versity of opinion as to whether somaliensis is a species or an age 

 form of purpureus, but all the evidence points to the two being speci- 

 fically distinct. P. somaliensis has been divided into three sub- 

 species — somaliensis, Tieglectus, and ahrjssinicus. I have seen but 1 



5 Syst. Avium Ethiop., 1924, p. 234. 



