586 Mr. G. L. Bates on the 



supposed that it miglit be due to age, and that the young 

 birds lost the yellowish-olive colour and became quite grey 

 before moulting into the black plumage of adults. Though 

 my first specimens supported this view, since only grey ones 

 were found with new black feathers appearing^ another 

 specimen subsequently obtained and liaving much of tlie 

 yellow tinge "was also moulting into adult plnmage. It 

 can therefore only be said that immature birds of this 

 species vary greatly in colour. A comparison with the 

 "well-known immature plumage of P. iiigerrimus suggests 

 that young birds of P. maxivelli with yellowish-olive in 

 their plumage shew a reversion to a type of plumage more 

 like the young of the former species. 



All my specimens were shot with bow and arrow, after 

 they had gone to roost, in flocks, in the tall grass. If_, as is 

 proljable, this bird nests in colonies, like P. niyerrinuis, it 

 must choose nesting-trees in retired and out-of-the-way 

 places. 



Amblyospiza saturata. [Ko-es6ng.] 



Sharpe, Ibis, 1908, p. 353; Bates, Ibis, 1909, p. 48. 



Many more examples have now been obtained of this 

 species, Avhich seems sufficiently distinct, though closely 

 allied to both A. cajntalba, from Upper Guinea, and 

 A. mehmonota, from the Lake district. 



One immature male (No. 3784) has a plumage scarcely 

 differing from that of the female, but the dilicrences are 

 nevertheless interesting, since they foreshadow the most 

 marked characters of the adult male plumage, namely, the 

 white forehead, chestnut head, and tlie "white wing-spots. 

 Tiic immature male has a tinge of chestnut mixed with 

 white on the forehead, and a little greyish-white on the 

 outer webs of the primary-quills. A male not yet breeding 

 (No. 1415) has a plumage like that of the adult, but the 

 light margins on the feathers are wider and more numerous, 

 and the throat and crop are blackish, not clear chestnut. 

 This seems to be an intermediate plumage. 



No 3879 is a bird which I do not understand. Both in its 



