342 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



appear to be a straight synonym of inaxwm. However, Reichenow "^ 

 calls attention to the fact that Swainson's description applies with- 

 out doubt to the form without spots on the back, and that the locality 

 on the type specimen was probably wrong. While it is true that the 

 plate shows the nape, interscapulars, and upper back to be un- 

 spotted, and in the description it is stated that the, " * * * gen- 

 eral colour above is dark cinereous, thickly covered with white spots, 

 these spots are thickest on the wing and nearly obsolete on the 

 back * * *," the abdomen is shown to be white with only a few 

 slate-gray bars on the flanks. In the character of spotting it agrees 

 more with sharpii, in the color of the venter with 'maxima^ while the 

 locality, whether right or Avrong, is stated to be Senegal which is 

 known to be inhabited by inctxima. So then it seems to reduce itself 

 to two arguments in favor of gigantea being the typical form to one 

 against it. It may well be that the actual specimen came from 

 Upper Guinea and was intermediate in character. It seems, from 

 the above, that gigantea is a synonym of inaxi7na and not a distinct 

 form with sharpii as a synonym. Miller "^ does not discuss the name 

 gigantea but uses sharpii for the western forest race. He writes 

 that in this form the " * * * belly is heavily marked with slate 

 color but it is never rufous." This applies to adults only as young 

 males have the underparts as in adult females except that they have 

 the breast spots rufous as well and not black. In the collections of 

 the Museum of Comparative Zoology there is a young male from 

 Sakbayeme, Cameroon (G. Schwab collection) which is in post- 

 juvenal molt. It has enough of the juvenal feathering still left 

 to show some apparently unrecorded features of the first pen- 

 naceous plumage. In the juvenal stage the upper wing coverts, 

 interscapulars, scapulars, and anterior part of the crown (if not most 

 of the upper parts) are similar to those parts in the adults but the 

 feathers are spotted terminally with light rufous chestnut. The 

 underparts (as has already been mentioned) resemble those of the 

 adult female but the pectoral spots are all rufous brown. The new 

 (black) pectoral feathers and those of tlie sides of the throat are 

 growing in in this specimen and all have the black area narrowly 

 tipped with rufous brown, particularly on the breast, and pro- 

 gressively less from there to the sides of the throat and to the chin. 



The new dorsal feathers in this bird are somewhat more spotted 

 than in a fully adult female from the same place, a fact which 

 suggests that the spotting becomes reduced with successive molts. 

 This also holds for the typical subspecies. 



The size variations of this species (11 specimens only examined) 

 are shown in the following table. It may be that more material will 



<" VOff. Afr., vol. 2, p. 299, footnote. 



»»Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 31, 1912, pp. 296-297. 



