BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 399 



The abundance of this bird in its peculiarly limited range is at- 

 tested by the fact that Mearns observed from 20 to 200 individuals 

 every day on his journey from Aletta to Gato River, March 7-29. 



PLOCEUS BAGLAFECHT BAGLAFECHT (Daadin) 



Loxia laglafecht Daubin, in Bufeon, Histoire naturelle (Didot's ed.), Quad- 

 rupeds, vol. 14, p. 245, 1799 (actually 1802) : Abyssinia. 



Specimens collected: 



3 males, 2 females, Adis Abeba, Ethiopia, December 31, 1911-January 7, 



1912. 

 1 female, Ankober, Ethiopia, January 22, 1912. 



Sclater^^ credits the name laglafecht to Vieillot,^^ \^^^^ Daudin 

 used the same name for the same bird 17 years earlier, and so it 

 must be credited to him. 



All the specimens obtained are in the nonbreeding, or "winter", 

 plumage. They are all very much alike, and all show the com- 

 mencement of the prenuptial molt, a touch of new yellow feathers 

 on the chin, and a small area of olive-yellow on the forehead in some 

 cases extending as far back as the crown. One female (January 3) 

 has several yellow feathers on the abdomen. 



The typical race of the baglafecht weaver is found in the high- 

 lands of Ethiopia from 5,000 feet up to about 12,000 feet. It occurs 

 in southern Eritrea (Bogosland) as well. 



In the northeastern Belgian Congo a race eremoMus replaces it, 

 and in the Cameroonian highlands another form, newnamu, is found. 



According to Sclater,^^ Shelley's name lovati^^ and Madarasz's 

 form edmundi ^^ are synonyms of haglafecht. 



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

 wing, 80-85; tail, 61-63; culmen, 17.5-19; tarsus, 23-25 mm. Fe- 

 males—wing, 77-80; tail, 53-62; culmen, 17.5-18; tarsus, 23-24 mm. 



Heuglin found this bird to be very numerous on the Eritrean- 

 Ethiopian border and in Wollo-Gallaland. Blanf ord ^« found the 

 species at 10,000 feet and noted that birds taken at Senafe at the 

 end of May were in breeding dress. 



In Shoa, Antinori noted that the winter plumage was still being 

 worn in March but that birds began to molt in May and June, July 

 and August birds being in breeding plumage. 



Erlanger®^ found a nest and two fresh eggs as late as October 4 

 at Adis Abeba, but he noted that most of the birds had young in 



»' Systema avium ^thiopicarum, pt. 2, p. 733, 1930. 



wNouveau dictlonnaire d'hlstoire naturelle, toI. 34, p. 127, 1819. 



»3 Systema avium ^thiopicarum, pt. 2. p. 733, 1930. 



M The birds of Africa, vol. 4, p. 457, 1905 : Lekamte, southern Abyssinia. 



•"Orn. Monatsb., vol. 22, p. 161, 1914: Adis Abeba. 



^ Observations on the geology aud zoology of Abyssinia, p. 403, 1870. 



" Journ. fiir Orn., 1907, p. 6. 



