460 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



May 19-Jiiiie 3, 4 seen ; Sagon River, June 3-6, 10 birds ; Tertale, June 

 7-12, 20 noted ; Turturo, June 15-17, 4 seen ; Anole, June 17, 2 birds ; 

 Wobok, June 18, 10 seen ; Sam, June 19, 4 birds seen. 



VIDUA MACROURA (Pallas) 



Fringilla macroura Paijas, Adumbratiuucula, in. Vroeg's Catalogue No. 144, 

 p. 3, 17G4 : "East Indies ;" Angola, ex Edwards and Brisson. 



Specimens collected: 



2 adult males, Ourso, Ethiopia, September 1-11, 1911 (Ouellard coll.). 

 1 adult male, Gato River crossing, Ethiopia, May 17, 1912. 

 1 adult female. Mar Mora, Ethiopia, June 14, 1912. 

 1 adult male, Wobok, Ethiopia, June 18, 1912. 



The pin-tailed whidah occurs througliout the Etliiopian region 

 from Senegal, the Sudan, and Eritrea south to the Cape Province and 

 Natal, as well as some of the adjacent islands in the Gulf of Guinea 

 and the Mozambique Channel. Throughout its enormous range it is 

 a common bird in suitable open country and has not become 

 differentiated into racial groups. 



In a series of 116 specimens before me, a black chin spot is well 

 marked in 31 and absent in 30 males in breeding plumage, while 

 others have it indicated more or less. There are specimens, however, 

 with and without this mark from the same locality in many cases, so 

 that it is quite obvious that the black chin spot has no taxonomic 

 significance. 



There is still much to be learned of the molts of this bird. A male 

 from Uitenhage, South Africa (U.S.N.M. no. 159582), collected in 

 September, is in winter plumage, but the entire plumage, including 

 the wings and tail, is so very fresh that the bird must have finished 

 molting not later than August. Inasmuch as the breeding season in 

 South Africa is over by the end of March, this individual must have 

 retained its nuptial plumage until late into the southern winter 

 (August). I found Vidua mao'owra chiefly in winter dress vmtil 

 the middle of October in Natal, and from then on most males seen 

 were either molting or in full summer plumage. (One in full breed- 

 ing plumage October 9.) The long rectrices can not be of any help 

 to the birds in flight and may be a decided encumbrance. Conse- 

 quently, it is somewhat surprising to find that in this bird the breed- 

 ing plumage is retained so long into the southern winter. It may bo 

 that the long tail feathers were dropped in April or May and the rest 

 of the nuptial plumage retained until later. The Uitenhage specimen 

 referred to has the white margins of the rectrices unusually well 

 developed; in fact, the fuscous portion is restricted to little more 

 than a broad shaft streak in the outermost pair. 



In the prenuptial molt the four long rectrices come in about the 

 time body molt commences. The crown molts first, then the sides 



