BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 411 



In the event that alleni may be considered a good race in the 

 future, the following manuscript notes left by Mearns may be of 

 interest : 



In the original description of alleni the female in nonbreeding plumage was 

 described. In the Frick collection are two female birds in breeding plumage. 

 They are paler throughout than specimens of 6o;ert hojeri from Mombasa ; 

 upperparts with a slightly grayish, instead of yellowish, wash; entire under- 

 parts, cheeks, and superciliary stripe wax yellow instead of primuline yellow. 

 Two immature males ♦ * * are also slightly paler and less yellowish above 

 than typical hojeri; entire underparts, cheeks, and superciliary stripe deep 

 colonial buff; maxilla dark; mandible pale, probably yellowish in life. An im- 

 mature male (Mus. Comp. Zool. No. 56121; collected on the Northern Guaso 

 Nyiro River, January 26, 1910, by Walter R. Zappey) is changing from the 

 olivaceous, immature or nonbreeding plumage to the breeding plumage, and is 

 spotted all over with new yellow feathers. 



The dimensions of the present specimens are as follows: Males — 

 wing, 72, 72.5 ; tail, 49, 51 ; culmen, 16.5, 16.5 ; tarsus, 21.5, 22.5 mm. 

 Females — wing, 68, 68; tail, 46, 48.5; culmen, 8, 9; tarsus, 20, 21 mm, 

 respectively. 



Sclater ^^ considers cmreojlavus^ castaneiceps^ and hojeri conspecific, 

 a conclusion that appears justifiable and logical if we consider only 

 the appearance of the three birds but that is rendered untenable 

 by the fact that all three live side by side in the Teita-Taveta area 

 and adjacent regions. I agree, therefore, with van Someren, who 

 considers them as distinct, though closely allied, species. The female 

 of aureo-jiavus is said to differ markedly from those of cinereiceps 

 and hojeri in being whitish instead of deep yellowish on the under- 

 parts. 



The golden weaver is a common bird in eastern Kenya Colony, 

 and nests in good-sized flocks. Near Mombasa it frequents the 

 cocoanut groves ; inland it nests in thorn trees. 



PLOCEUS GALBULA Ruppell 



Ploceus gallula RtJppEix, Neue Wirbelthiere, zu der Fauna von Abyssinien 



gehorig, etc., Vogel, p. 92, pi. 32, fig. 2, 1840: Modat Valley, Abyssinian 



coast. 

 Specimens colijected : 



2 adult males, 5 adult females, Djibouti, French Somaliland, November 23, 

 1911. 



1 immature male. Dire Daoua, Ethiopia, December 22, 1911. 



1 adult female, Chobi, Ethiopia, December 23, 1911. 



2 adult males, Hawash River, Ethiopia, February 12-13, 1912. 



Soft parts : Iris orange-red in males, dark brown in females. 

 Neunzig ^* has separated the birds of the Aden region, south- 

 western Arabia, under the name P. g. arahs, on the basis of the more 



" Systoma avium ^thiopicarum, pt. 2, pp. 747-848, 1930. 

 " Orn. Monatsb., vol. 33, p. 93, 1925. 



