328 



BULLETIN 15 3, UI-TITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



plumage lighter than in the central Kenian race, and, of course, the 

 throat is not black, but only dark grayish. 



Two of the birds from Gato Kiver (a male collected April 9, and 

 a female May 11) are in postjuvenal molt. The order of feather 

 renewal (as far as it may be told from two dead specimens) is like 

 that described for kikuyuensis. As in the latter form, the tail molt 

 is centripetal, the wing molt progressively divergent from the 

 carpus. 



On May 11, Mearns shot a mated pair at Gato River near Gardula. 

 Although the juvenal birds collected there April 9 to May 1 indicate 

 by their stages of growth that the nesting season must begin not 

 later than January (if there is a definite breeding season), the find- 

 ing of a mated pair on May 11 is not unusual, as Erlanger ^^ obtained 

 two nestlings on May 17 at Abu-el-Kater. He also found nests with 

 eggs (three to a nest) at Harrar on April 7 and 11. 



According to Erlanger this bird lives chiefly in the highlands, and 

 is replaced in the lowlands by Colius macrourus. Zedlitz ^^ corrob- 

 orates this observation. 



The size measurements of the adults of the present series are 

 tabulated below : 



Mearns entered the following observations of this bird in his 

 field notebooks. Aletta, March 7-13, 4 seen; Loco, March 13-15, 

 •1 birds; Gidabo River, March 15-17, 14 birds; Abaya Lakes, March 



asjourn. f. Ornith., 1905, p. 488. 

 »» Idem, 1910, p. 757. 



