350 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



December and January are also in molt. A long series of February 

 males from the southern Sudan are all in nonbreeding plumage. 

 Sclater and Mackworth-Praed ^^ have examined a fine series of Su- 

 danese birds and find that they appear to retain the long tail feath- 

 ers — 



* * * practically throughout the year until they become very worn in 

 December when they are shed, and the new tail commences to sprout in Janu- 

 ary. The metallic breeding-dress commences soon after and is complete in 

 from May to July. The winter birds resemble the females, but always retain 

 traces of the metallic green on the shoulders and the long tail feathers, which 

 appear to be only lost for the annual molt. 



The species does not occur in the high mountains of Ethiopia, but 

 only in the low plains and the hot valleys. The upper limit of its 

 altitudinal range seems to be about 5,000 feet. Von Heuglin found 

 it to be fairly numerous in Bogosland and in the lowlands of north- 

 ern Ethiopia; Antinori and Kagazzi met with it in Shoa; Neumann 

 obtained examples in the lake region of southern Shoa; Erlanger 

 collected specimens in Arussi-Gallaland, the Hawash Valley, and 

 in the Djamdjam district. 



Meariis found three nests with two eggs each of this bird at Gato 

 Eiver near Gardula on May 1, 7, and 13. The nests are of the usual 

 sunbird type — pendant, purse-shaped structures of fine grasses, plant 

 fibers, and cobwebs, with some feathers mixed in, especially in the 

 inside, and suspended from the tips of terminal branches of thorn 

 trees, at elevations varying from 3 to 10 feet from the ground. The 

 eggs, which were somewhat advanced in incubation in all three nests, 

 average 17 by 12 mm; ar,e rather tapering to a rounded point at 

 the smaller pole; are dusky grayish with dark grayish and blackish 

 markings, and a grayish ring around the unmarked larger pole. 



One of the nests contained in addition to the two usual eggs, two 

 other pale bluish ones spotted with dull lilac. These eggs are similar 

 in size and shape to those described above, but their identification 

 must be left an open matter. 



NECTARINIA MELANOGASTRA NECTARINOIDES (Richmond) 



CinnyiHs nectarinoides Richmond, Auk, 1897, p. 158: Plains east of Kiliman- 

 jaro. 



Specimens collected: 



1 adult male, Tharaka district, Kenya Colony, August 13, 1912. 

 1 immature male, Tana River, Kenya Colony, August 16, 1912. 



Th,ere are three races of this sunbird, as follows : 

 1. N. m. nnelanogastra: From Singida and Dodoma in Tanganyika 

 Territory north to Ukamba, the Sotik, and south Kavirondo. 



«Ibis, 1918, p. 617. 



