BIKDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 341 



Three of the present birds were just finishing their rectricial molt 

 when collected; two of them are otherwise in good fresh plumage, 

 while the third is a subadult bird molting out of the fuscous-black 

 plumage of immaturity into the glossy blue-black of the adult stage. 

 The other birds ,are in fairly fresh plumage but vary among them- 

 selves in this regard. 



Inasmuch as this species seems to be imcommon in collections the 

 dimensions of these specimens are here recorded for the benefit of 

 other investigators : 



Males: Wing, 145.5, 152, 154, 154, 155 mm; tail, 140, 166, 178, 180, 

 183 mm; culmen, 25.5, 25.5, 26, 26.5, 26.5 mm; tarsus, 31.5, 32, 32, 33.5, 

 35 mm. Females: Wing, 141, 143.5 mm; tail, 126, 157 mm; culmen, 

 23.5, 25 mm; tarsus, 30, 30.5 mm. 



Shelley " has briefly reviewed what was known at the time of the 

 distribution of this starling. He gives but one Kenyan locality 

 (Mount Kenya), Euwenzori, and the one Tanganyika record (be- 

 tween Tandalla and Bulongwa), and states that it is fairly abundant 

 in Shoa and central Ethiopia east to Harrar, and even in that coun- 

 try it is a local and uncommon species. In northern Ethiopia and 

 in southern Eritrea it has been taken by a number of collectors. 

 Erlanger ^^ procured specimens at Adis Abeba, Gara Mulata, Djam- 

 djam, and in Arussi-Gallaland. The Euwenzori expedition found 

 this bird plentiful on that great mountain mass at altitudes of from 

 6,500 to 10,000 feet.i2 



In Kenya Colony the species has been recorded from a number of 

 localities since Shelley's work was published. Van Someren^^ ob- 

 tained specimens at Lake Magadi, Voi, Nairobi, Fort Hall, and Ky- 

 ambu ; the Smithsonian-African expedition under the late Col. Theo- 

 dore Roosevelt obtained one at Wambugu. In Tanganyika Terri- 

 tory it has been taken in the Uluguru Mountains, 



Ogilvie-Grant " writes that the young birds of both sexes, re- 

 semble the "male parent in lacking all trace of grey edgings to the 

 feathers; but the whole plumage is much less glossy." It seems to 

 me that there is no greater resemblance to the male parent than to 

 the female; Ogilvie-Grant's statement has the unintended effect of 

 making something remarkable out of a not unusual plumage sequence. 



Mearns found these birds feeding in some red-flowering trees in 

 open country at an altitude of 9,200 feet. 



"The birds of Africa, vol. 5, pt. 1, pp. 113-114, 1906. 

 ^ Journ. fiir Orn., 1905, p. 710. 

 ^ Trans. Zool. Soc. London, vol. 19, p. 265, 1910. 

 " Nov. Zool., vol. 29, p. 133, 1922, vol. 37, p. 317, 1932. 

 " Trans. Zool. Soc. London, vol. 19, p. 265, 1910. 

 106220—37 23 



