On the Plumages and Moults of Males of the Sunbirds occurring in Eastern Africa

Summary. In Group (1) we find that in adults the head and body are moulted twice a year, and the wings and tail only once a year, i. e . when moulting from non‐breeding to breeding dress, except with the genus Hedydipna , which moults the wings and tail twice a year. The young birds complete their moult, including wings and tail, from first young dress direct to a breeding dress. In Group (2) the adults have a complete moult once a year from a breeding dress to a breeding dress, but the young birds have a complete moult, including wings and tail, from the first young dress to an immature (intermediate) dress, and another complete moult, including wings and tail, from the immature dress to the breeding dress, In Group (3) the adults moult direct from 8 breeding dress to a breeding dress, and the young birds moult, including wings and tail, from first young dress to a breeding dress. It may be remarked that all these three different sequences of plumage are also found in some of the Sunbirds of India, i. e. Cinnyris minima Sykes and Cinnyris asiatica (Latham) have non‐breeding dresses, whereas Cinnyris zelonica (LinnEus) and Cinnyris loteina (Linnsus) do not have a non‐breeding dress, and Æthopyga ignicauda (Hodgson) has an immature (intermediate) dress. Some species no doubt breed during both the long and short rains, and those which appear to have an individual breeding cycle and subsequent moult may he found to fit into these seasons, and certainly some of the recorded breeding months point to this being so; but whether the same birds breed twice in the year seems doubtful. As the British Museum series is mainly evacuated owing to the present emergency this paper must be accepted as being based only on present available material, and we hope to publish more detailed information, especially on the species in Group (4), at a later date. It is interesting to note that the genus Chalcomitra has, as far as we know, no non‐breeding dress, and that the genus Anthreptes has, so far as we know, no non‐breeding or immature dress. It must also be remarked that whereas Nectarinia famosa has a non‐breeding dress throughout its distribution from Abyssinia to South Africa, Cinnyris after has no non‐breeding dress in South Africa, but one of its races has a non‐breeding dress in central Africa. The evidence accumulated is by no means conclusive, and there are some species (Group (4)) about which we know very little, either of their moults or breeding, but it has taken us a step further in our knowledge, and we trust will serve as a basis for future workers both in the field and in the laboratory.