BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 463 



V. macroura: Upperparts solid ashy chestnut; underparts light buffy chestnut; 



axillars buffy white; under tail-coverts light butfy. 

 V. Jiypocherina: Entire bird dark ashy brown; lores black; axillars white; 



under tail-coverts dusky ashy hrown. 



It may be useful to field workers to have the differences between 

 the females of V. fischen^ V. regia, V. macroura^ V. Jiypocherina, and 

 ISteganura pointed out. 



Steganura is the largest of them all ; top of head buffy white with 

 a broad blackish brown stripe on either side; underparts whitish with 

 buff on breast and flanks; inner edge of primaries neither white nor 

 buffy. 



F. inacToura and F. hyfOcTierina: Top of head as in Steganura; 

 inner edges of primaries white (other differences between the two as 

 noted above). 



F. ftscheri: Top of head brown with dusky marks; underparts pale 

 buffy; inner margins of primaries tinged with buff. 



F. regia: Top of head as in F. 7nacroura but has the superciliary 

 streak whitish, not rufous-buff. 



The present males taken in September and May are in breeding 

 plumage ; the one collected in June is in winter dress. 



The pin-tailed whydah occurs throughout the region covered by 

 the present report, but is chiefly a bird of the lower districts. Thus, 

 Zedlitz ^^ saw it chiefly at altitudes of not more than 900 meters. 



At Dangila this bird is known to parasitize Cisticola hnmnescens 

 hrunnesce7is frequently. According to Lynes,^^ the breeding season 

 of the grass warbler is from June to October, which must, then, be 

 also that of Vidioa rnacroura. 



VIDUA HYPOCHERINA Verreaux 



Vidua Jiypocherina 3. and E. Vebbeaux, Rev. Mag. Zool., 1856, p. 260, pi. 16: 



"West Africa" ; probably East Africa. 

 Specimens collected : 



6 adult males, Ourso, Ethiopia. September 2-11, 1911 (Ouellard). 



5 adult males, 1 immature male, 4 adult females, Tertale, Ethiopia, June 

 8-10, 1912. 



Soft parts : Iris brown ; bill grayish, fleshy brown at the base, be- 

 coming dusky at the tip; feet pale grayish brown. 



The Ourso males are all in full breeding plumage ; the Tertale ones 

 are in prenuptial molt. 



When the male molts out of the black nuptial dress the long rec- 

 trices are shed first, leaving the bird very similar in appearance to 

 Hypochera. The body molt is rather irregular. Because of the stage 

 in which this species is so similar to Hypochera, it is very difficult to 



" Journ. fiir Orn., 1911, p. 30. 

 »2 Ibis, Suppl., Oct. 1930, p. 161. 



