BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 415 



Soft parts: Male — iris brown, bill all red, feet and claws pale 

 brown. 



The red- winged anaplectes occurs in the southern half of Ethiopia 

 and in Somaliland south through Kenya Colony to southwestern 

 Tanganyika Territory, and west through the Sudan to Senegal. 



The males vary enormously in the extent of the black on the head. 

 In some the chin and upper throat back as far as the posterior margin 

 of the auriculars are black like the face, while in others the lower 

 cheeks, upper throat, and chin are devoid of black. 



Ogilvie-Grant ^* described a dark-backed bird from Beni Schongul, 

 Ethiopia, under the name A. hlundelU. This has generally been 

 taken to be a synonym of melanotis. All the present Ethiopian 

 specimens are somewhat darker-backed, with more red on the middle 

 of the upper back than some from Kenya Colony. However, I have 

 seen some dark-backed birds from the latter country and also from 

 Tanganyika Territory and do not find any constant differences be- 

 tween northern and southern birds. The point to be made is that 

 I have seen no western, Senegambian, birds and do not know whether 

 they too are often dark-backed. If they are always paler backed, 

 then the name hlundelU will be available for the eastern birds. 



The adult males collected have the following dimensions: Wing, 

 84^89 (average, 86.6); tail, 51.5-57.5 (54.2); culmen, 16.5-18 (17); 

 tarsus, 19-20 (19.4). Female — wing, 80; tail, 54; culmen, 16; tarsus, 

 18.5 mm. The birds vary as to the abrasion shown, but only the 

 immature birds, taken in May, are in fresh plumage. According to 

 Heuglin the molting season is in November and the breeding time is 

 in August in Sennar. In Ethiopia it is quite different. Erlanger *^ 

 found nests with eggs in northern Somaliland late in February. 

 Mearns found numbers of nests with eggs and young in May at 

 Bodessa. The young birds collected at that time w^ere fully grown 

 and must have left the nests not later than the middle of March, so it 

 seems that the reproductive season is a prolonged one. 



Erlanger found that this weaver was nowhere abundant in Ethio- 

 pia or Somaliland, being found singly or in small groups, particu- 

 larly in thin, open woods near streams. Once he found four nests in 

 the same tree. Farther south the species is much more numerous. 



At Bodessa, Mearns saw about 30 of these birds on high grassy 

 ridges, but usually in watered valleys. 



QUELEA QUELEA AETHIOPICA (Sundevall) 



Ploceus aethiopicus Sundevaix, Ofv. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Forh., vol. 7, p. 126, 

 1850: Sennar. 



«Ibis, 1900, p. 132. 



« Journ. fiir Orn., 1907, pp. 4-5. 



