1G8 Mr. AV. R. Ogilvic Grant on Birds 



f>[f- 6iS' Pliilwalia^ Abyssinia, IG February, 1899. 

 (Nos. 319, 320.) 



h. ? . Bilo, Abyssinia, 10 Marcli, 1899. (No. 389.) 



Iris brown ; bill and legs black. 



[A very common bird throughout our joiirney. Like the 

 rest of its kind, this Chat was in much plumper condition as 

 March approached and the migration-time drew near, — L.] 



139. Pkatincola albofasciata. 



Pratincohi albofasciata (Riipp.) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. 

 Mus. iv. p. 3 98 (1879) ; Sharpe, P. Z. S. 1895, p. 487. 

 a. S ' Warabili, Abyssinia, 3 January, 1899. (No. 98.) 

 Z», (^ . Tra, Abyssinia, 7 January, 1899. (No. 135.) 



c. ? . Akake, Abyssinia, 23 January, 1899. (No. 274.) 



d. S juv. Gimbi, Abyssinia, 23 March, 1899. (No. 444.) 

 Iris brown ; bill and legs black. 



Specimen a, a male, shot on the 3rd of January, has the 

 feathers of the breast widely margined with rusty red, and the 

 feathers of the crown and lower back indistinctly edged with 

 the same colour. 



Specimen b, a male shot on the 7th of January, has the 

 rusty margins of the breast-feathers nearly obsolete, and the 

 crown and lower back are black. 



Specimen c, which is marked " ? certain, 23rd Januarj'^," 

 is in the plumage of a breeding male, the breast as well as the 

 upper parts being uniform black, without a trace of the rust- 

 colovired edgings to the feathers. Lord Lovat assures me that 

 there can be no doubt that this bird was proved to be a female 

 by dissection. 



It may be worth remarking that an undoubted female of 

 Saxicola montuna shot by myself on Sokotra had the chin and 

 throat black, narrowly fringed with isabelline, and was per- 

 fectly similar in pkimage to numbers of males from the same 

 locality. It would thus seem that among the Chats the 

 female sometimes assumes the male plumage. 



[Specimen c (No. 274) was certainly a female. I sjieci- 

 ally called Mr. Harwood's attention to the fact, and noted 

 the sex in red ink in my notebook. There is, I believe, a 



