— 136 — 



by Mr. S. Lov^n, and I have carefully sexed them. The male 

 had swollen testes and the ovary of the female was well deve- 

 loped. 



I cannot agree with Hartert's description of the differen- 

 ces between the male and the female. (Nov. Zool. vol. IX, 

 1902 pp. 623 — 624). The male specimen is in every respect 

 in conformity with Hartert's account, but the female differs 

 considerably. 



The red patch on the forehead, counting from base of bill," 

 is only 8 cm. long (in the male 11 cm.). The black patch on 

 the sides of the neck and breast, bounding the red of the chin 

 and neck, does not, as in the male, extend around the eye, but 

 only under the edge, so that the upper eye-border is here 

 olive-green, but black in the male. But the most important 

 difference in the sexes, however, is the different colours of 

 the tail. 



The tail of the female is rather like that of the young 

 bird, the two central rectrices being dark olive-green, the others 

 dark-brown on the inner-web and on the whole of the outer-web 

 dark olive-green. When the tail is closed it therefore appears 

 to be dark olive green. In the male the tail is a uniform black. 



It seems remarkable that of D o h e r t y ' s 19 specimens 

 not a single one should be a female. Yet it seems to be the 

 case, in spite of the reasons which H a r t e r t (op. cit. p. 624) 

 adduces for the probability of there being 9 specimens among 

 them. It is true that 99 ^^^ smaller than the males, but the 

 variations among the latter is also great. 



It is not impossible — though very improbable — that the 

 female described by me is to be considered as an 'aberrant". 

 But one more female was shot, (so badly damaged, however, that 

 it could not be skinned) by Mr. Loven, and I have noted the 

 same differences for this specimen. And in this case the question 

 of "aberration", drops out, but one might then be inclined to 

 assume, (if Hartert's description is correct) that the Elgon 

 form is different from the Escarpm.eut form. This, however, is 

 less probable. 



Wing, culmen, tarsus, tail, 



84 mm., 19 mm., 30 mm., 80 mm., d* ad. 



78 mm., 19 mm., 30 mm., 85 mm., 9 ^^' 



Hartert has (Nov. Zool. vol. IX, 1902, p. 623) described 

 this race carefully but the figure of the cf ad. does not agree 

 entirely with the text, for the narrow black line around the eye, 

 which is rather well-defined in the bird, does not appear on 

 plate IX. 



If there are really females among Doherty's specimens, 

 which are thus like the males, and the female of the Elgon 

 bird is unlike the male, then the Elgon bird must be considered 



