58 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



it would not be surprising if typical -fiava stock should occasionally 

 produce a yellowish-bellied female of the petiti plumage. 



The present species has been usually called C. nigra in literature, 

 but Oberholser ^^ has shown that -flava is based on the female of this 

 species and has page priority over nigra (based on an adult male). 



The single specimen obtained by the Frick expedition is in molt but, 

 on the whole, in good fresh plumage. Its dimensions are as follows ; 

 Wing, 101 ; tail, 98 ; culmen, 15 ; tarsus, 20 mm. 



Neumann has shown that the males go through a sequence of three 

 plumages, or, in other words, do not attain the adult feathering until 

 the third year. 



Bannerman and Bates ^^ find that in the western form petiti, "a 

 young male has nearly the whole underside bright yellow, only a few 

 feathers having blackish spots and bars. Some immature males in the 

 collection are barred black and white on the underside, with little or 

 no yellow. Some nearly adult black males have on the breast a few 

 white feathers with dark bars, but no yellow. From this it looks as 

 though the first juvenile plumages were yellow on the underside, and 

 a later one barred white and blackish." I very much doubt that this 

 is so; in C. quiscaUna, the adult female of which has a pure-yellow 

 under surface, the young of both sexes are whitish below, barred with 

 blackish. It seems that the "young male" in question was wrongly 

 sexed and is really an adult female. 



Sclater^® considers petiti a distinct species. 



Being an inhabitant of forests, or, at least, fairly well-wooded 

 country, this bird is somewhat local in its distribution. 



Little seems to be known of its breeding season. Sjostedt,^* 

 however, notes that a female shot on March 16, on Mount Kiliman- 

 jaro, had an egg, ready to be laid, in its oviduct. 



Besides the specimen collected, Mearns noted this species several 

 times. The following records are from his notes : Thika River, August 

 26-27, 14 birds ; west of Ithanga Hills, August 28, 10 seen ; Athi River, 

 August 29-31, 15 birds noted. 



CAMPEPHAGA PHOENICEA (Latham) 



Ampelis phocnicea Latham, Index ornithologieus, vol. 1, p. 367, 1790: Africa. 

 Specimens colleictei): 



1 male, Botola, Sidamo, Ethiopia, March 5, 1912. 



1 male, Aletta, Ethiopia, March 6, 1912. 



2 males, Aletta, Ethiopia, March 9, 1912. 



1 male, 1 female, Gato River near Gardula, Ethiopia, April 12-20, 1912. 

 1 immature male, Turturo, Ethiopia, June 15, 1912. 

 1 Juvenal male, Biderou, Ethiopia, June 15, 1912. 



18 Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 28, p. 921, 1905. 

 I'' Ibis, 1924, p. 247. 



" Systema avium ^thiopicarum, pt. 2, p. 590, 1930. 



** Wisseuschaftliche Ergebnisse der schwedischen zoologischen Expedition nach dem 

 Kilimandjaro . . . Deutsch-Ostafrilfa, 1905-6, etc., Vogel, p. Ill, 1910. 



