KENYA (II) 303 
land, their enormous tails trailing behind them and slowing up 
their flight to a pronounced degree. Although having a head and 
body length of only four inches, the male in the breeding season 
develops a tail some twenty inches long. He is mainly black, but 
in flight reveals his shoulder patches of scarlet, buffy-white, and 
buff. 
Nanyuki is on the edge of the dry thorn-bush country and 1s 
rich in birds that like these conditions. It is always bewildering 
to the uninitiated to see birds by the thousand in some semi- 
desert locality after finding them comparatively scarce in the 
SEASONAL PLUMAGE CHANGES IN THE WATTLED STARLING 
(1) normal; (2) intermediate; 
(3) breeding head-dress showing wattles and bare skin 
(Drawing by W.C. Osman Hill, M.D., F.RS.E.) 
tropical forests. Both the Superb and the Wattled Starlings were 
common at the time of my visit. These spend more of their time 
on the ground than the Glossy Starlings and were much in evi- 
dence in a nearby cattle kraal stealing food from the troughs. 
The male Wattled Starling has a unique seasonal change of 
head-dress. In the dry season, which corresponds with the non- 
breeding season, he is hardly distinguishable from the female, 
having his head feathered in the normal way with no sign of any 
wattles. In the reverse season the top of the head in the adult male 
becomes quite bare, the skin of this part then turning yellow. At 
the same time the head- and chin-wattles, which are black, com- 
mence to sprout, the former eventually hanging down in the 
form of a lappet on one side of the bill, while the chin-wattle 
