. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. [Bull. 1978: 98(2)]. Figure 3. The distribution of colours on the mandibles of Francolinus harwoodi \ the shaded areas are red, the solid areas are black, o* left, $ right. Harwood's Francolin Francolinus harwoodi is one of the rare and virtually unknown birds of Africa (Hall & Moreau 1962). Until recently it has been known from only 3 specimens collected in the last 78 years in the Blue Nile gorge in north central Ethiopia. All were males. The purpose of this paper is to detail 4 more specimens (one male and three females), to describ
. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. [Bull. 1978: 98(2)]. Figure 3. The distribution of colours on the mandibles of Francolinus harwoodi \ the shaded areas are red, the solid areas are black, o* left, $ right. Harwood's Francolin Francolinus harwoodi is one of the rare and virtually unknown birds of Africa (Hall & Moreau 1962). Until recently it has been known from only 3 specimens collected in the last 78 years in the Blue Nile gorge in north central Ethiopia. All were males. The purpose of this paper is to detail 4 more specimens (one male and three females), to describe the previously unknown female, and to discuss sightings of apparently similar birds over a much wider area of central Ethiopia. The 7 specimens collected so far (Table 1) are from 4 localities in the Blue Nile gorge or its tributaries. The type locality (Ogilvie-Grant 1900) Aheafeg (=Ahaia Fej—Haiafegg; Amharic for donkey killer) is 49 km northeast of where I collected in the Jemmu Valley; Cheesman & Sclater's (193$) localities near Bichana and at Kalo Ford are respectively 87 km northwest and 102 km to the west of the Jemmu site. Of the 4 new specimens, one was an adult male, 2 were first year females and one an adult female. Age was determined, as in other francolins, by the shape of the 2 outermost primaries. In juveniles the prim- aries are pointed, not rounded as in adults, and the 2 outermost are retained through the first pre-basic moult until the birds are about 14 months old. Description of the male and female Francolinus harwoodi The Jemmu male, with which the Jemmu female needs to be compared, differs in some respects from the original description and plate of the type specimen (a male), in Ogilvie-Grant & Lovat (1900), perhaps due to the colour printing or to a change in colour values with time. The whole of the upperparts of the Jemmu male skin is a greyer tone of brown than the type in their plate, and the buff on the underparts is paler; both new and
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