BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 377 



birds taken in April at Gato River, Tlie September, October, and 

 December birds from Ourso, Dire Daoiia, and Sadi Malka are in 

 worn plumage. Signs of molt are shown by birds collected in Octo- 

 ber, April, and August. A character that may be of interest in the 

 event that scioamis may be resurrected by some other investigator is 

 the color of the outer margins of the primaries of immature birds. 

 In Kenyan and extreme southern Shoan birds these margins are 

 huffier than in Shoan specimens, which are more whitish in this 

 regard. 



The molt into adult plumage appears to be very irregular. Thus, 

 one immature male has the abdomen, sides, flanks, and under tail 

 coverts black as in the adult plumage, but has the chin, throat, and 

 upper breast still white, while another specimen has the chin, throat, 

 and upper breast black, and the rest of the underparts still largely 

 covered with the feathers of the immature plumage. 



The adult males have the following dimensions: Wing, 119-127 

 (122) ; tail, 96-106 (99.9) ; culmen, 22-24.5 (23.5) ; tarsus, 30.5-33 

 (31.8 mm). Females— wing, 107-113 (108.6); tail, 83-90 (87); 

 culmen, 20-23 (21.9) ; tarsus, 29-30.5 (29.7 mm). 



Erlanger ^^ found this bird nesting in March and April in the 

 Arussi country. Zedlitz ^® writes that in extreme northern Ethiopia 

 and in Eritrea the typical race breeds at the end of the rainy season. 

 Brehm and Heuglin found the birds breeding from July to Septem- 

 ber in northern Ethiopia, Sennar, and Kordof an. In British Somali- 

 land Lort Phillips found them building nests in March. 



Mearns saw this peculiar bird in considerable numbers only along 

 the Northern Guaso Nyiro and Lekiundu Rivers; elsewhere) he saw 

 only what he collected, or at least he failed to record them if there 

 were others. 



DINEMELLIA DINEMELLI DINEMELLI (Gray) 



Textor dinemelli Gray, Genera of birds, pt. 1, page corresponding to p. 350 in 

 the 1849 edition (unnumbered in the original, subsequently suppressed 

 edition), May, 1844: No locality; Shoa (Riippell, Systematische Uebersicht, 

 der Vogel Nordost-Afrika's, p. 72, 76, pi. 30, 1845, ex Horsfield MS.). 



Specimens collected : 



3 males, 12 females, Dire Daoua, Ethiopia, November 27- December 15, 1911. 

 2 males, Sadi Malka, Ethiopia, January 31-Pebruary 2, 1912. 



1 male, Hawash River, Ethiopia, February 10, 1912. 



4 males, Tertale, Ethiopia, June 7-10, 1912. 



1 male, 1 female, Saru, Ethiopia, June 19, 1912. 



1 female, Yebo, Ethiopia, June 20, 1912. 



2 females, Hor, Kenya Colony, June 30, 1912. 



1 male, 1 female, 18 miles southwest of Hor, Kenya Colony, July 1-2, 1912. 

 1 female, Dussia, Kenya Colony, July 2, 1912. 



"Journ. fiir Oin., 1907, pp. 2-3. 

 "Journ. fUr Orn., 1911, pp. 14-1.^. 



