398 Letters, Extracts, Notices, ifc. 



Bull. B. O. C. vol. X. p. xi\ (1899); Ogilvic Grant, Ibis, 

 1900, p. 122, pi. ii. 



Mr. Ogilvie Grant says: — "This fine species closely re- 

 sembles O. monachus Gm., but may at once he distinguished 

 by the colour of the bill, which is uniform deep black. The 

 greater secondary icing-cocerts and some of the lesser wing- 

 coverts are, moreover, clearly edged with golden yellow, 

 Avhereas in O. monachus they are always uniform, and the 

 subt€rmi)ial markings on the third, fourth, and fifth tail- 

 feathers extend over both ivebs and are of a deep black." 



Among the birds collected by Antinori in Shoa there were 

 21 specimens which 1 have attributed to Oriolus monachus 

 (Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. (2) i. p. 203). Two of them {s, t) 

 are exactly like the figure of 0. rneneliki, having the bill 

 extremely black ; a third (;•) has the bill partly black and 

 partly mahogany-red. The first two have been identified 

 by me as young bii'ds : in fact they have the black feathers 

 of the throat slightly edged with pale yellowish; also the 

 third specimen (r) has traces of a yellowish tinge on the 

 chin, and this I take to be immature. If I am not mistaken, 

 some traces of whitish edging to the feathers of the chin 

 appear also in the figure of the type specimen of O. meneliki. 

 It is important to notice that on the labels written by 

 Antinori, the bills of the two young birds and of the immature 

 one are marked as reddish, so that the change of colour of 

 the bill from reddish to black evidently depends on the drying 

 of the skin. 



As to the other characters assigned to O. meneliki, the 

 yellow edge of the greater secondary wing-coverts is also a 

 sign of immaturity ; and as to the black subterminal markings 

 on the third, fourth, and fifth tail-feathers extending over 

 both webs and forming a subterminal black band, 1 have 

 noticed in our series that this band is almost obsolete in the 

 very young birds, and becomes more prominent as the birds 

 become older. From all this I have not the least doubt that 

 the bird described and figured in 'The Ibis' is an immature 

 specimen of O. monachus. It appeal's, also, tliat in the 

 allied species the bill while drying becomes entirely black ; 



