BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 319 



This race has long crest feathers, the posterior of which are curled 

 slightly inward and forward; wings, 110-125 mm. 



2. P. c. melanoftera : Western Somaliland, west to Harrar in Ethi- 

 opia, south through the Garre-Lewin country and southern Gallaland 

 to the Juba River and, in the west, to the Endoto Mountains, in 

 Kenya Colony. Differs from cristata in having a much shorter 

 frontal crest, hardly longer than in P. polioc&phala^ the occipital 

 crest also shorter and not curled inward and forward; wings, 

 102-118 mm. 



3. P. c. vinaceigulo.ris : The Taru Desert, Teita and Taveta dis- 

 tricts of Kenya Colony, south to the Kilimanjaro region, Tangan- 

 yika Territory. Similar to melanoptera but slightly smaller, wings 

 100-114 mm, and young with the occiput, nape, chin, and upper 

 throat washed with vinaceous. 



P. concinnatns is specifically distinct. 



The series collected by the Frick expedition contains several young 

 birds that are of interest because of their plumage variations. It 

 appears that the juvenal feathers are worn but a short time and 

 are then replaced by a set that resembles those of the adult, except 

 that the birds do not develop the long occipital crest feathers until 

 the second adult plumage. Juvenal birds are dark fuscous-brown 

 on the back, the feathers edged with whitish, and are white on the 

 entire head and nape. One of the young birds examined has the chin 

 and throat either stained or lightly washed with pale vinaceous- 

 gray and has a dark vinaceous-gray band across the occiput, re- 

 calling some of the features of the corresponding stage of vinaceigu- 

 laris. 



The birds may breed in first adult plumage, that is, without the 

 occipital crests, but the evidence for this is not too good. Mearns 

 collected a young bird at Turturo on June 15 and also an older 

 female (in first adult plumage) and wrote on the label of the lat- 

 ter "parent of young specimen." However, this species usually stays 

 in small flocks, and inasmuch as the young bird is in postjuvenal 

 molt, the two specimens may have merely been shot from the same 

 flock and not been otherwise related. 



Several of the adults taken at Bodessa, as well as the male from 

 Black Lake Abaya and the one from Turturo, are in molt, the 

 ecdysis affecting the remiges and rectrices. The series is not suffi- 

 cient to prove the point, but it suggests that the caudal molt begins 

 with the middle and the outermost rectrices and proceeds from those 

 two centers. The wing molt begins at the wrist joint and presents 

 no unusual features. 



The size variations of the adults may be seen from the following 

 figures: Males have wing lengths of from 110 to 118.5 mm (average, 

 115.6) ; females, 112-121 mm (average, 118.5). 



