BIEDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 



479 



elude the Taru Desert, Serengeti Plains of the Kilimanjaro district 

 south to Morogoro, Kilosa, and the Pangani River, Tanganyika 

 Territory. A bird from Mpapwa is intermed,iate according to 

 Neumann. "^ 



The series collected by Mearns is remarkable in that it contains no 

 realh' young birds. If one were to collect, more or less haphazardly, 

 a series of 31 specimens of a species, it would be reasonable to expect 

 a fair percentage of young birds. This absence can mean but one 

 thing — that the juvenal plumage is worn only a very short time, or, 

 to put it in other words, that the post juvenal molt comes very soon 

 after the birds attain full size. The male from Lake Stefanie, 

 Ma}' 17, is the onl}'^ one with any of the juvenal plumage left. It has 

 the forehead and crown black with white round spots and the malar 

 streak black and white, but red feathers are beginning to appear 

 both on the top of the head and in the malar region. 



The caudal molt is remarkable in that it is centripetal, at least, 

 so it appears from a study of sldns of molting birds. 



The adults vary greatly in the abundance of the spots on the 

 ventral surface, and also in the amount of greenish on the dorsum. 

 The size variations of the series collected by Mearns may be seen 

 from the following table : 



Locality 



Ethiopia: 



Dire Daoua 1 



Do 



Do 



Hawash River 



Aletta 



Gato River near Gardula 



Do 



Do 



Lake Stefanie 



Kenya Colony, Endoto Moun- 

 tains 



Ethio]>ia : 



Dire Daoua 



Do 



Do 



Do 



Sadi Malka 



Aletta 



Loco 



Gato River near Gardula 



Do! 



Do 



Do 



Do 



Do 



Sagon River 



Do 



Kenya Colony, Er-re-re 



Sex 



d^ 



d" 

 & 



& 



& 



9 

 9 

 9 

 9 

 9 



9 



9 

 9 

 9 

 9 

 9 

 9 

 9 

 9 

 9 

 9 



Wing 



Tail 



111.0 

 110. 

 104.0 

 109.0 

 108. 

 107.0 

 110. 

 103.5 

 107.0 



106.0 



108. 5 

 109.0 

 108.0 

 110. 

 110.0 

 108.0 

 111.0 



109. 

 114.0 

 115. 5 

 109.0 

 111.0 

 107.0 

 107.0 

 109. 

 100.0 



64. 5 



63. 5 

 59. 



65. 5 

 69. 

 63.0 

 62. 5 

 59.0 

 59.5 



64.0 



62. 5 

 60.0 

 64.0 

 63.0 

 65.0 



64. 

 64.0 

 01. 

 67. 

 68.0 



65. 

 66.0 

 60.0 

 64.0 

 65. 

 57.0 



" Jouiri. f . Ornith., 1904, pp. 394-395. 



