BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 339 



upper tail coverts green, more golden, less pure green than in adults, 

 the feathers of the forehead and lores being tawny buff, terminally 

 banded with green, giving them a brown and green barred aj^pear- 

 ance, the inner greater and middle upper secondary coverts with 

 large buff}^ white terminal spots terminally narrowly margined with 

 green, some of the feathers finely barred with buff'y white on their 

 basal portions, the rest of the upper wing coverts fuscous black, 

 either wing with a green margin, or (especially the greater primary 

 coverts) with a slight greenish sheen, none with anything reseml)ling 

 the white and dark gray vermiculations characteristic of the adults ; 

 remiges plain fuscous brown except the innermost secondaries which 

 are finely mottled with buffy and greenish on the outer webs; 

 rectrices as in adult. Under parts: Chin, throat, and breast buffy 

 tawn}^; belly and flanks and under tail coverts whitish, many of the 

 feathers somewhat buffy, all of them dusky gray basally. One of 

 the Bodessa males is molting from this plumage into the immature 

 stage and presents a rather curious appearance, particularly on the 

 imderside where new feathers are coming in on the breast and abdo- 

 men. The new throat and breast feathers are tawny, fairly broadly 

 tipped with green, whereas these feathers in adults are green for all 

 except a small basal fuscous portion, the green area being four or 

 five times as wide as in immature birds. As a matter of fact in the 

 immature plumage these feathers are really tricolored, being gray at 

 the extreme base, then tawny, then green. The new feathers grow- 

 ing out on the abdomen are red, but paler than in adults, and those 

 on the anterior part of the belly are definitely, but narrowl}^ and 

 not distinctly, barred with dark brownish. 



The immature plumage resembles the adult type except for the 

 above mentioned differences in the feathers of the underparts and 

 the fact that the upper wing coverts are dark fuscous, not vermicu- 

 lated with white. Occasionally some of the juvenal upper wing 

 coverts may persist even into the first adult plumage, but it may be 

 that such cases (where white spots are present on these feathers) 

 are due to albinistic tendencies rather than to the persistence of 

 juvenal feathers. The female from Aletta is a case in point. The 

 middle upper wing coverts have conspicuous white spots, but these 

 feathers are new, not worn. Immature birds average somewhat 

 more golden, less bluish green above than adults, but inasmuch as 

 adults vary somewhat among themselves in this respect, it is difficult 

 to be very definite in this statement. 



Van Someren " writes that, " * * * young birds, after passing 

 through the spotted plumage, assume a plumage like that of the 

 female, but differ in having pale terminal spots to the lesser coverts 

 and occasionally on the secondaries. It is not until the third plum- 



^ Nov. Zool., vol. 29, 1922, p. 72. 

 94312—30 23 



