114 ONYCHOGNATHUS ALBIROSTRIS 



On ]\Iount Kenia, just south of the Equator, the 

 Mackinder Expedition obtained the specimens I have above 

 described, and remarked : " Although fairly common among 

 the crags at the head of the Hohnel Yallej', this species was 

 not observed in any other locality " (P. Z. S. 1900, p. 602). 



Dr. Sharpe adds : " There is another specimen in Mr. 

 Jackson's collection from Euwenzori. It should be noticed 

 that both the female birds have the grey edges to the 

 feathers which I formerly considered to be characteristic of 

 the young of this species." It would appear from the 

 immature specimen I have described, labelled female, by 

 Mr. Zaphiro, that the j'oung of both sexes resemble the 

 male and not the female; if so the latter would not acquire 

 its distinctive colouring before the first moult. This is 

 a question for future ornithologists to decide, for as j'et the 

 evidence is insufficient; but we know that in 0. hJijtld the 

 first plume of the female resembles that of tlie male. 



Although fairly abundant in Shoa and Central Abyssinia, 

 it has not been procured from further east than Harar, 

 and is, as Mr. Ogilvie Grant has remarked, " a rare and 

 local species." To the north of Shoa, Mr. Pease has pro- 

 cured specimens at Dembrateha and Ahouillet, Mr. Jesse at 

 Aidigrat and Heuglin met with it in the highlands between 

 Wogara and Semien, darting, with a noisy flight, from 

 bush to l)ush along the sides of the precipices. The type 

 was discovered by Kiippell in Abyssinia. 



Onchychognathus albirostris. 



Ptilonorhynclius (Kitta), albirostris, Eiipp. N. Wirb. Yog. p. 22, pi. 9 



(1835) Abyssinia. 

 Pilorbinus albirostris, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 167 (1890) ; Shelley, B. 



Afr. I. No. 62i (1896) ; Reichen. Vog. Afr. ii. p. 70i (1903) ; Neum. 



J. f. 0. 190i, p. 568 ; 1905, p. 242 ; Erlang. t. c. 1905, p. 710 



Ariissi Galla. 



