Birds from British East Africa and Ugunda. 2'o7 



These two apparently dissimilar dresses can either be 

 put down to colour phases, or to immature aud adult 

 plumages. 



The first theory is at once disposed of by the fact that 

 every gradation between the two is found, i.e. specimens 

 with spotted heads and plain mantles, specimens with almost 

 plain heads and spotted mantles, and almost every stage 

 between. The second theory is perhaps more feasible, but 

 among the series I cannot place my hand on one specimen 

 that is just out of the nest ; though there are two from 

 Nyasaland on which the note is written " taken as nestlings 

 and kept 5 montiis." These two have brown heads with 

 but very few and very narrow streaks, and the mantle is but 

 slightly spotted. 



Taking this as the first dress, we have a single specimen 

 from Makalaka that is just completing the moult, in which 

 the new mantle is normally spotted and the feathers of the 

 head are still brown (as in the two Nyasaland specimens), 

 and new spotted feathers are replacing them. 



Therefore this seems to point to the plainer birds being 

 young and the spotted ones being adult. 



Tills theor}' seems correct until we come to specimens that 

 have the markings on the head more barred than spotted. Is 

 this individual variation ? 



North-western, north-eastern, and eastern birds in Avhat 

 I take to be adult dress have the spots on the head rather 

 smaller than southern specimens, but many individuals can 

 be found that are hardly distinguishable. 



Of the five specimens in this collection two are apparently 

 young and the other three are apparently adult, though one 

 has less spotting on the mantle than the other two. 



A series of almost fully fledged nestlings taken from the 

 nest would be of great value in settling the question of 

 plumage. 



Keichenow has himself (Vogel Afr. i. p. 674) sup- 

 pressed his G. kiliniense (Orn. Monatsb. 1893, p. 178 : 

 Kilimanjaro). 



[Irides yellow or light yellow ; bill greenish yellow or 



