398 
Letters, Extracts, Notices , §c. 
Bull. B. O. C. vol. x. p. xix (1899); Ogilvie Grant, Ibis, 
1900, p. 122, pi. ii. 
Mr. Ogilvie Grant says :—“ This fine species closely re¬ 
sembles O. monachus Gm., but may at once be distinguished 
by the colour of the bill, which is uniform deep black . The 
greater secondary wing-coverts and some of the lesser wing- 
coverts are, moreover, clearly edged with golden yellow , 
whereas in O. monachus they are always uniform, and the 
subterminal markings on the third, fourth, and fifth tail- 
feathers extend over both webs and are of a deep black.” 
Among the birds collected by Antinori in Shoa there were 
21 specimens which 1 have attributed to Oriolus monachus 
(Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. (2) i. p. 203). Two of them ( s , t) 
are exactly like the figure of O. meneliki, having the bill 
extremely black; a third (r*) has the bill partly black and 
partly mahogany-red. The first two have been identified 
by me as young birds : in fact they have the black feathers 
of the throat slightly edged with pale yellowish; also the 
third specimen (r) has traces of a yellowish tinge on the 
chin, and this I take to be immature. If I am not mistaken, 
some traces of whitish edging to the feathers of the chin 
appear also in the figure of the type specimen of O. meneliki. 
It is important to notice that on the labels written by 
Antinori, the bills of the two young birds and of the immature 
one are marked as reddish, so that the change of colour of 
the bill from reddish to black evidently depends on the drying 
of the skin. 
As to the other characters assigned to O. meneliki, the 
yellow edge of the greater secondary wing-coverts is also a 
sign of immaturity ; and as to the black subterminal markings 
on the third, fourth, and fifth tail-feathers extending over 
both webs and forming a subterminal black band, I have 
noticed in our series that this band is almost obsolete in the 
very young birds, and becomes more prominent as the birds 
become older. From all this I have not the least doubt that 
the bird described and figured in ‘ The 1 bis ^ is an immature 
specimen of O. monachus. It appears, also, that in the 
allied species the bill while drying becomes entirely black; 
