BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 347 



have also come to this decision, although van Someren ^° recognizes 

 both jacksoni and unisplendens. I do not find that birds from the 

 Kenya Highlands {jachsoni) are always more higlily colored than 

 Ethiopian examples, and the color of the sheen on the crown and 

 occiput does not seem to be a reliable character either. 



The adult males present the following size variations : Wing, 77-85 

 (average, 80.8) ; tail, 93-121 (average, 103.5) ; culmen, 28-31.5 

 (average, 30) ; tarsus, 18-20 (average, 18.6 mm). Females: Wings, 

 68-74 (average, 71.4) ; tail, 58.5-65 (average, 62.1) ; culmen, 27-28 

 (average, 27.6) ; tarsus, 18-19 (average, 18.2 mm). 



Three of the males from Arussi Plateau, the one from Lake Zwai, 

 and one from Sidamo are molting into breeding plumage. Their 

 dates (late February and early March) agree with what Shelley ^^ 

 records when he says that the adult males retain their full breeding 

 plumage only from April to November. That some males assume 

 this feathering earlier than April is shown by some of the February 

 specimens, which are in fresh breeding plumage. The data on molt 

 given by Neumann ^^ also agree. He writes that birds taken in Sep- 

 tember in Shoa are in perfect breeding plumage; that Djamdjam 

 specimens taken in December show signs of postnuptial molt; that 

 January and February birds (from southern Ethiopia) are in winter 

 plumage ; and that April birds are molting in nuptial feathering. 



Heuglin ^^ found this sunbird up to 13,000 feet in the mountains of 

 northern Ethiopia. Blanford ^* saw them abundantly at 10,500 feet 

 on the Eritrean-Ethiopian frontier and found birds in breeding 

 plumage and condition at Senafe in May. 



Neumann ^^ found a nest with two eggs on September 19 at Tsch- 

 eratsiha, in Shoa. 



NECTARINIA KILIMENSIS KILEVIENSIS Shelley 



Nectarinia kilhnensis Shexley, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1S84, p. 555: Mount 

 Kilimanjaro, about 5,000 feet. 



Specimens collected: 1 adult male, 1 immature male, 1 adult female. Escarp- 

 ment, 7,390 feet, Kenya Colony, September 4-9, 1912. 



Sclater *^ lists three races of this sunbird — the typical one, arturi of 

 Nyasaland and Southern Rhodesia, and gadowi of Angola. No men- 

 tion is made of filiola Hartlaub, but, judged by the range given for 

 kilimensis^ the former seems to be considered a synonym of the latter. 

 This, however, seems to me to be wrong; I find western birds more 



=» Nov. Zool., vol. 29, pp. 192-193, 1922. 



^ The birds of Africa, vol. 2, p. 27, 1900. 



'^ Journ. fur Orn., 1906, p. 257. 



33 Ornithologie Nordost-Afrilsa's, etc., vol. 1, p. 222, 1869. 



'* Observations on tlie geology and zoology of Abyssinia, p. 352, 1870. 



=» Journ. fiir Orn., 1906, p. 300. 



=« Systema avium ^thiopicarum, pt. 2, pp. 683-684, 1930. 



