BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 59 



Soft parts (adult male) : Iris dark brown; bill, feet, and claws 

 glossy black ; the gape swollen and pinkish flesh color. 



As pointed out by Oscar Neumann,2o this species is peculiar in that 

 the adult males usually have a red patch on the outer, upper, lesser, 

 and middle primary coverts, but that not infrequently this area is 

 bright chrome-yellow instead of red. Occasionally the patch has an 

 external border of lighter yellow as well. Quite naturally these 

 color forms were once considered distinct species and were given 

 names. Thus, Campephaga xanthornoides (Lesson)-^ and Campe- 

 phaga rothschUdi Neumann,-^ both based on birds with yellow wing 

 patches, are merely synonyms of C. phoenicea. Hartert ^^ in writing 

 of the type of rothscMldi., states that it "is not a species, but an 

 aberrant specimen of the yellow-shouldered variety \^''xantliornoides'''''\ 

 of Campephaga phoemcea^ with yellow outer primary coverts. Not 

 only the colour of the shoulder patch, but also the extent of the red 

 or yellow colour varies, and in this case the latter colour has ex- 

 tended over the outer primary coverts." 



The male taken near Aletta and the one collected at Gato River 

 are of the '■'■rothschildV type; one of the other Aletta males has 

 pure-red shoulder patches, while the other two adult males have 

 these patches mostly red but with yellow middle coverts forming a 

 yellow posterior margin to the color areas. 



The immature male from Turturo is in an advanced stage of the 

 postjuvenal molt and presents a rather bizarre appearance, being 

 irregularly black and white below, brown and black above. Its 

 colored shoulder patches are peculiar, as the lesser coverts are fiery 

 orange-red and the middle coverts pale yellow barred with fuscous. 

 Its tail molt is likewise peculiar in that the four middle pairs of 

 rectrices and the outermost pair are new, black, adult feathers, while 

 the next to the outermost pair are old, fuscous and yellow, ju venal 

 feathers. The wing molt appears to begin at the carpal joint and 

 proceed outward but not inward, that is, it affects the primaries 

 and not the secondaries. The molt of the latter group of remiges 

 seems to begin with the tertials and to proceed outward toward the 

 wrist joint, but the secondaries do not begin to molt until all but 

 the three outermost primaries are shed and renewed. This condition, 

 however, may be found to be not entirely characteristic, as I have 

 seen but one molting specimen. 



The Juvenal male resembles the adult female but is much less 

 barred below, is somewhat darker brown on the top of the head, 

 upper back, and upper tail coverts, largely lacks the whitish on the 



zojourn. fur Orn., 1916, pp. 146-154. 



=1 Ann. Sci. Nat., ser. 2, vol. 9, p. 169, 1838. 



== Journ. fur Orn., 1907, p. 594. 



=3 Nov. Zool., vol. 29, p. 375, 1922. 



