^'L3 



277 



Mr. Cassin writes : — " The very peculiar colour given as ' fuliginous ' by authors assumes a 

 variety of shades in this species, apparently depending upon age and season. It is frequently 

 very pale, giving the entire bird a dull brownish yellow or ochre colour ; and the metallic violet 

 of the rump is frequently wanting." 



I believe that these varieties of plumage are entirely seasonal ; for I have before me two 

 specimens from the Gaboon, labelled by M. Verreaux " female " and " male in winter plumage," 

 which are perfectly similar, and the following series : — 1st, a specimen from the Volta, in which 

 the upper parts are mottled with dark brown, especially on the wings, and with the throat 

 metallic violet ; 2nd, a specimen collected at Chinchonxo on the 22nd of May, in which the 

 plumage is peculiarly dark, and, with the exception of the tail-coverts being only partially 

 metallic, is in full plumage ; next we have three specimens in full plumage, each varying in the 

 depth of colour of the brown on the back of the head, neck, and mantle ; no. 6 is a still paler 

 specimen from Senegambia, which has lost the metallic colours from the bend of the wing and 

 from the upper tail-coverts; the chest, abdomen and under tail-coverts are similar to those 

 parts in the female, only that they are slightly mottled with brown ; no. 7, from the Gaboon, 

 only differs from the last in the metallic forehead being replaced by dark brown feathers,- the 

 next stage to this being the " male in winter plumage " with which he began. 



From this series it appears to me that the bird has only one actual moult in the year, when 

 it abruptly assumes the dark brown feathers, and that afterwards the colours simply fade away, 

 so that it is rather the exception to meet with two specimens in exactly the same plumage. 



The specimens here figured and described are from the Gaboon on the authority of 

 M. Verreaux, and formed part of Mr. Sharpe's collection, now in the British Museum. 



