a ; arittion ae Birdsiy ann eT as LAYS ey; { a s 1h T ‘} ona eae f Vi | tPA a iy Dd aes TEP iP laa he ey ‘Me ie OL P G2 ff rte QCA4KZa Ww _ x THE \ \ = ~~) Pees: OF AFRICA COMPRISING ALL THE SPECIES WHICH OCCUR IN THE HTHIOPIAN REGION. BY G. E. SHELLEY, FZS, F.RGS., &. (LATE GRENADIER GUARDS), AUTHOR OF ‘‘A HANDBOOK TO THE BIRDS OF EGYPT,” **4 MONOGRAPH OF THE SUN-BIRDS,’’ ETC. LONDON : PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR BY R. H. PORTER, 7, PRINCES STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE, W. 1905. Ke 19 2bar National Muses: B9¢g,20% fest S Bid CONTENTS. PAGE | 382. Urobrachya zanzibarica PAGE List oF Puates se 000 eopeaviis (Pl. xxx.) 64 305. Linurgus concolor 1 | 383. = pheenicea... sss) GO Family II. Proceiwa 2} 384. a“ trayersii ... eae On Subfamily I. Vipuinz 4 | 385. 3 mechowi ... cay 208 Genus I. Hypocurra See si 5 | 386. B bocagei_... fae lO 356. Hypochera chalybeata Be 6 | Genus V. PyroMELANA Be score thl) 357. % ultramarina 8 | 387. Pyromelana capensis ... son 358. x, funerea 10 | 388. approximans ... 79 359. + nigerrima... Sco el! 389. A xanthomelas ... 76 360. rf amauropteryx ... 12 | 390. f phoenicomera ... 78 Genus II. Vipua me a 29 le) |) sak Be; aurea... me ete 361. Vidua hypocherina ... Bop AE AGERE Fe afra ae Ace tell) 362. ,, serena ... ae soe 1) BBB ie ladoensis... Sosy Oe Bho.) | orev ia «s. ahs so) Oe GREE 55 taha Soc wee» OF 364. ,, fischeri ... AAG Son eB BS a stricta... 580 365. ,, paradisea oe ee 20) <3965 wt diademata St 85 Genus III. Coniuspasser ... sen eR Wee 3 nigriventris mee et) 366. Coliuspasser progne ... ees.) || 898: 5 franciscana ao he 367. - delamerei ee ove (a0: Pr orix = Bs 0) 368. aa laticaudus eos! 400: ae sundeyalli eae 98 369. > ardens ... oo 40) 401 3 wertheri ... Pe LOL 370. is concolor ... vow 44) 402; . friederichseni ... 102 371. r eques... sso GY || OB Ms ansorgel ... coo, lO 372. - albonotatus pee 46) 404. 5 gierowi ... noe, KOS 373. 55 asymmetrurus ... 49 | 405. 5 flammiceps .. 104 374. x macrourus ... 49 |Genus VI. ANomanospPiza ... = 108 375. i macrocercus ... 52 | 406. Anomalospiza imberbis 376. 3 soror (Pl. xxix.) 53 (Pl xxx1.)= 208 377. 9$ psammocromius 53 | Genus VII. QuELEa ... a zee LO 378. *5 hartlaubi... ... 04 | 407. Quelea quelea ... st Sie ella 379. - jacksoni .., .. 65 | 408. ,, sthiopica _ 3. Wid Genus IV. Uropracuya ... .. 09 | 409. ,, erythrops ner Soc, SASL 380. Urobrachya axillaris ... .. 60] 410. ,, cardinalis oe eis LD 381. >» » var. affinis 60 | Subfamily II. Esrrimpinm ... ... 120 Genus I. AmapINA 411. Amadina fasciata 412, a marginalis 413. 10 erythrocephala Genus II. Paiweratrrus 414. Philetairus socius 415. 3 arnaudi 416. Ne dorsalis 417. 55 emini 418. 3; cabanisi Genus III. Nigrrva . 419. Nigrita fusconota 420. ,, uropygialis 2 bicolor... Lo beceieeeene Sh AB ees canicapilla 424, diabolica 425. 5; emiliz ... 420. 5, schistacea 427, luteifrons Genus IV. PADDA 428. Padda oryzivora Genus V. Urotoncua 429. Uroloncha caniceps 430. Pr cantans Genus VI. Orryaosprza : ran Ortygospiza polyzona... 432, 5p atricollis ... Genus VII. SprrmustEs 433. Spermestes fringilloides 434, Pa bicolor 435. ie poensis 436. Ae nigriceps ... an 437. + minor ... 438. e cucullatus 439, 5 scutatus ... 440. Fs nana Genus VIIT. Nesocuaris 441. Nesocharis shelleyi Genus IV. Cutoresrrinpa .., 442. Chlorestrilda ansorgei.. 443. 6 capistrats, Genus X. Urmeinraus 444, Ureginthus granatinus CONTENTS PAGE 122 123 125 126 129 130 132 445. Ureginthus ianthinogaster 446, ne angolensis 447, x cyanocephalus 448, ve bengalus ... Genus XI. Esrrinpa... 449. Kstrilda astride. 450. i », Cavendishi 451. + », damarensis 452, 5 », Sancte-helenz... 453. op -lautavoye = 454, » occidentalis 455. a F sousee 456. » Yubriventris 457. » cinerea 458. », rufibarba 459. » Yhodopyga (PI. sai 460. » subflava wee 461. » Clarkei.. 462. a melpoda, 463. » paludicola 464. », Yroseicrissa 465. », poliopareia 466. », Ochrogaster 467. », cerulescens 468. yy perreini F 469. - ,, thomensis ... 470. as » poliogastra ... 471. ee » Incana 472. », higricollis 473. » vinacea 474, Spe Lavage 475. 3) Kandtil... 476. » nonnula 477. » elizee 478. », atricapilla 479, » erythronota 480. », delamerei 481. charmosyna Genus XII. Coccopyeia 482. Coccopygia dufresnei 483. 5p bocagei (PI. xxxiii. i) 484, 5 quartinea 485. 5 kilimensis Genus , III. Hyparcos rs 486. Hypargos margaritatus 490. ” ” ” niveiguttatus dybrowskii... nitidulus harterti Genus XIV. LaGonostIcTa ... : 491. Lagonosticta cinereovinacea ... 492. 503. Genus XY. PYTELIA... ” melanogastra polionota rhodopareia (Pl. xxxiv.) congica ... se jamesoni rubricata landane ... senegala... brunneiceps rendalli ... rufopicta rhodopsis CONTENTS PAGE 240 240 242 242 244 245 246 247 249 250 251 252 254 255 256 258 260 262 264 264 504. Pytelia 513. phcenicoptera... “ emini lineata... hypogrammica afra 2 citerior... : » jessei ... melba ... ay Libilial », soudanensis Genus XVI. Cryprospiza 514. Cryptospiza salvadorii 515 5 reichenowi 516. rf australis ... a 517. - jacksoni (Pl. xxxv.) 518. 5 shelleyi ... Genus XVII. PYRENESTES ... 519. Pyrenestes sanguineus 520. i coccineus ... O21, 3 ostrinus 022. 5 minor Ss LIST OF PLATES—VOL. IV., PART I. Plate XXIX., fig. 5 fig. Plate XXX., _ fig. fig. Plate XXXI. Plate XXXII, fig. 7 fig. ii fig. Plate XX XIII, fig. As fig. Plate XXXIV., fig. 5 fig. Plate XXXYV., fig. 5 fig. * fig. So oe WN pr bP wre Pyromelana ladoensis ) Coliuspasser soror ) Urobrachya zanzibarica e affinis, Cab. Anomalospiza rendalli (Tristr. Estrilda rhodopyga J vinacea, ¢ ”)? ” 2 Coccopygia bocagei, 3, 2 Lagonosticta cinereovinacea Pytelia citerior Pyrenestes minor Cryptospiza jacksoni ) | 3 rhodopareia | 3; shelleyi PAGE 280 LINURGUS CONCOLOR 1 Linurgus concolor. Amblyospiza concolor, Bocage, Jorn. Lisb. 1888, pp. 229, 232 St. Thomas Isl. ; Sharpe, Cat. B.M. xiii. p. 670 (1890); Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 458 (1896). Neospiza concolor, Salvad. Acc. R. Se. Torino, 1903, p. 26; Bocage, Jorn. Lisb. 1904, p. 80 St. Thomas Isl.; Reichen. Vég. Afr. iii. p. 278 (1904). Adult. Very similar in colouring to L. rufibrunneus, but a much larger bird. Entire plumage rufous brown, with ill-defined blackish centres to the feathers of the forehead, crown, hind neck and mantle; wings and tail, with the exception of the edges of the feathers, darker brown; under surface of the quills silvery brown, slightly paler on the inner margins; under wing-coverts rufous brown like the entire under parts. ‘‘Iris pale brown; bill dusky brown, with the under mandible whitish; feet brown.’ Total length 8 inches, culmen 0:90, wing 4°2, tail 1-9, tarsus 1:0. ¢g, 9.90. Rio Quija (F. Newton). The Great Brown Short-tailed Finch is confined to the Island of St. Thomas. The species was discovered by Mr. F. Newton, who informs us that it is known to the natives of the island as the **Enjolo.” On the east coast he procured two specimens at the Rio Quija, which runs through the large forest at Ango- lares, and he observed it on the west coast at St. Miguel. I overlooked the affinities of this bird when I published my third volume of the “ Birds of Africa,” presuming that it had been rightly assigned to the genus Amblyospiza, where it remained until Count Salvadori pointed out that it is a true Finch, and proposed to make it the type of a new genus Neospiza (Acc. R. Sc. Torino, 1903, p. 26). This species appears to me not to be generically distinct from Linurgus rufibrunneus, Gray, and Pheospiza thomensis, Bocage, both of which I have referred to the genus Linurgus, Reichenbach. It comes into my key (B. Afr. III., p. 172): “a. Plumage nearly uniform tawny brown, darker above than below.” Add. a}. Larger, wing over 4 inches. concolor. b'. Wing under 3°5 inches, rufibrunneus and thomensis. [October, 1904. zh Section IN. FRINGILLAS (continued.)* Family II. PLOCHIDA. Bill strong and Finch-like, with the culmen extending back in a wedge between the sides of the frontal feathers; edges of the mandibles smooth, excepting in Pyrenestes. Nasal aperture rounded and impinged upon by the frontal feathers. Wings of ten primaries, the first a bastard-primary. Tail of twelve feathers, variable in form, and sometimes differ in the sexes according to the season. Tarsi and toes moderately strong, and the claws curved and sharply pointed. The name of Weaver-bird has been given to the members of this family on account of their peculiar habit of weaving together the materials with which they construct their solid and often beautiful nests. When on reeds or in trees they are often suspended in colonies, and the entrance passage is frequently formed like a sleeve, varying from a few inches in length up to about five feet. Others will construct in company a single substantial roof for the protection of a whole colony. The family is confined to the tropical portion of the Old World. Some 250 species (more than two-thirds) inhabit the Ethiopian region, and only about ten of these range beyond its boundary. The members of this family may be readily distinguished from all the other Ethiopian Finches, not only by the well- marked first primary being shorter than all the others, but also by the bare culmen extending back so as to divide the feathers of the forehead into two portions. With regard to the English names, I have endeavoured to make them useful by restricting certain ones to well-marked divisions. * Vol. IIL., p. 140. 2. PLOCEIDA 3 The Viduinz include the Combasous (Hypochera), Whydahs (Vidua, Coliuspasser and Urobrachya), Bishop-birds (Pyromelana and Anomalospiza), and the Dioches (Quelea). The Estrildine include the Ribbon Waxbills (Amadina), Social Waxbills (Philetairus), Negro Finches (Nigrita), Silver- bills (Uroloncha), Mannikins (Ortygospiza, Spermestes and Neso- charis), Cordon-blues (Ureginthus), Waxbills (Hstrilda, Cocco- pygia and Chlorestrilda), Twin-spots (Hypargus), Fire-finches (Lagonosticta), Pytelias (Pytelia), Crimson-wings (Cryptospiza), and the Notch-billed Waxbills (Pyrenestes). The Ploceine include the Blue-billed Weavers (Spermo- spiza), Grosbeak- Weavers (Amblyospiza), White-headed Weavers (Dinemellia), Buftalo- Weavers (Tewtor), Sparrow Weavers (Plocepasser), Anaplectes (Anaplectes), Malimbes (Malimbus), Black Weavers (Melanopteryx), Dark-backed Weavers (Syco- brotus), Black-winged Weavers (Heterhyphantes), Spectacled Weavers (Hyphanturgus), Slender-billed Weavers (Sitagra), Masked Weavers (Hyphantornis, Pachyphantes and Othyphantes), Golden Weavers (Xanthophilus), and the Fodies (Foudia). KEY TO THE SUBFAMILIES. a. Bastard-primary very small, narrow and finely pointed, not reaching beyond the end of the primary coverts. at. Mantle striped in some stages of plumage ; hind claw longer and more slender ; generally with some of the inner feathers of the wing lanceolate; tail-feathers often obtusely pointed. The plumage of the males after the autumn moult usually resembles that of the females; but after the spring moult generally differs entirely Viduine. 4 VIDUINE 61. Mantle never striped; hind claw shorter and stouter; none of the inner feathers of the wing lanceolate; tail-feathers never obtusely pointed. Plumage very similar in both sexes at all times of the year . . Estrildine. b. Bastard-primary larger, broader and not sharply pointed; tail always square or rounded “=r od Neer ee a) ee eee ace eEwoceniie: Subfamily I. VIDUINA. Bill stout, shorter than the head and varying in colour according to the season. Wing with a bastard-primary which is very small, narrow and sharply pointed. Young birds, females, and adult males after the autumn moult have the tail square or rounded, and the plumage very Lark-like in colouring ; the males for the breeding season (Quelea excepted) assume a totally different and more beautiful plumage, and often the shape and size of the tail greatly alter. The species mostly breed on or near the ground in marshy places, and construct an oval, domed nest of grass. The fifty-three known species of this subfamily are all confined to Tropical and South Africa. This subfamily is particularly subject to a law of Nature, very little understood, by which its members are liable to vary somewhat in colouring. For instance: to this law is due the variation in the colour of the bill in members of the genus Hypochera ; the presence or absence of black feathers on the chin in Vidua serena ; the scarlet or pale yellow colouring of the collar in Coliuspasser ardens ; the variable amount of yellow on the flanks of Pyromelana ladoensis; the black on the head and throat of Quelea quelea and Q. exthiopica, this disappearing entirely in some specimens, when they assume the plumage described as Q. russi. These variations probably depend to some extent upon the constitution of the individual bird being affected by the change in the flora and insect fauna of the large area over which they are distributed. HYPOCHERA 5 KEY TO THE GENERA. a. Adult male and female totally dissimilar in their breeding plumage. a1. In full plumaged males: back never mot- tled; head, neck and breast not mostly yellow. Bill less stout. a?. No frill on the neck ; no bright red nor yellow on the plumage. . Tail entirely square; plumage black with acoloured gloss . . . Hypochera. 6%. Four centre tail-feathers eeeemely long in full plumaged males. Vidua. 62. A frill round the neck, and (with the exception of C. concolor) some bright red or yellow in the plumage. c’. Tail longer than the wing and graduated . . . . . « Coliuspasser. d’, Tail shorter than the wing: at, Tail distinctly rounded; full plumaged males with the head, neck, body and tail black; the lesser a red, orange or yellow ... Urobrachya. b+. Tail nearly rasta “red o or mallow not confined to the wings. Pyromelana. b1. Back always mottled with blackish centres to the feathers; head, neck and breast mostly bright yellow in full eee males; bill stouter . . Anomalospiza. b. Adult male and female poutowtnt sation in plumage at all seasons; back always striped Quelea. Genus I HYPOCHERA. Bill white or reddish, short, as broad as deep at the nostrils, the tip pointed ; culmen curved, somewhat swollen and rounded. Nostrils basal, the apertures round and almost entirely hidden by the frontal plumes. Primaries: 1 very small, not longer than the culmen; 2, 3, 4 and 5 longest and nearly equal ; Shee quill falling short of tip of wing by the length of the tarsus. Tail square, the inner pair of feathers slightly the shortest (the latter character distinguishing it from all the other genera 6 HYPOCHERA CHALYBEATA of this subfamily). Tarsi and feet reddish, moderate in size; claws fairly long and curved. Type. Hypochera, Bp. Consp. i. p. 450 (1850) . . H. anh The genus is confined to Tropical and South Africa, and comprises five closely-allied forms. Of these, two inhabit Northern Tropical Africa and may be readily distinguished from the more southern forms by the blacker colouring of the quills and tail, and of the under surface of the wings. The longitude of Grand Basam (8° 30’ W. long.) forms apparently the boundary between the ranges of H. chalybeata and H. ultramarina. The ranges of the three more southern forms are extremely badly defined. KEY TO THE SPECIES. a. Wings and tail dark sepia brown; less white on under surface of the wings. a+. Gloss on head and body more blue, dis- tinctly shaded with green . . chalybeata. 7 b1. Gloss on head and yas: more file ae no green shade. . . ultramarina. — /- b. Wings and tail paler nes: more ae on the under surface of the wings. ct. Gloss on head and body more violet, with no greenish blue shade. a, Gloss slightly brighter and more violet . funerea. p. to, b?. Gloss slightly duller and blacker . . . migerrima. / d+. Gloss on head and body of a more greenish blue shade . . . . . . . . amauropteryx. |’ Hypochera chalybeata. Fringilla chalybeata, P. L. S. Mill. S. N. Suppl. p. 166 (1776). Hypochera chalybeata, Reichen. Vég. Afr. iii. p. 213 (1904). Fringilla nitens, Gm. 8S. N. ii. p. 909 (1788). Hypochera nea, Hartl. J. f. O. 1854, p. 115 Senegambia; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 308 (1890); Butler, Foreign Finches in Captivity, p. 274, pl. 47 (1894); Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 305 (1896). Le Comba-Sou, Vieill. Ois. Chant. p. 44, pl. 21 (1805). HYPOCHERA CHALYBEATA 7 Male in breeding plumage. Black strongly glossed with greenish blue ; outer half of the median and greater coverts, quills and tail sepia brown with some imperfect narrow buff edges to the primaries and centre tail- feathers ; inner lining of the wing sepia brown with broad brownish buff inner edges to the quills; axillaries and about half of the under wing-coverts white ; flanks with a few somewhat hidden white feathers. ‘Iris brown; bill and legs reddish” (Hartlaub). Total length 4-4 inches, culmen 0-39, wing 2°45, tail 1:5, tarsus 0°55. Dakah (Laglaize). Adult female. Upper parts brown, mottled with dark centres to the feathers of the upper back, scapulars and lesser wing-coverts; remainder of the wings and the tail dark brown, with very narrow pale edges to the feathers; under wing-coverts white, shading into pale brown at the bend of the wing; centre of crown brownish buff with the sides blackish brown ; sides of head buff, shading into brown on the ear-coverts, the upper part of which is darker and forms an ill-defined band; under parts light brown fading into white on the centre of the breast, abdomen and under tail-coverts “Tris brown, bill horny white, tarsi and feet rosy pink” (Butler). Wing 2°35. Senegambia. Adult male in winter. Very similar in plumage to the female. The Green Combasou ranges from Senegal to Grand Basam. From Senegambia came the type of H. xnea which is in the Bremen Museum, and in the British Museum there are seven other specimens from that country, including one from Dakar on Cape Verde and one from Sedhiu near Casamanse. Mr. J. S. Budgett, while at the Gambia, found the species common near Quinela. On Bulama, one of the islands of the Bissagos group (11° 30’ N. lat.) Sig. Fea procured two full plumaged specimens in July and three in half moult in June and October. According to Mr. A. G. Butler, these birds often retain the breeding plumage for years in confinement; one of his did not change it for five years, and then at the time when the others were assuming the black plumage. They lay, he observes, three to five eggs, obtusely pointed and pure white. The most eastern range recorded for the species is Grand Basam, where Arséne procured an immature specimen. 8 HYPOCHERA ULTRAMARINA Hypochera ultramarina. Fringilla ultramarina, Gm. 8. N. ii. p. 927 (1788) Abyssinia. Hypochera ultramarina, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 309 (1890) ; Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 306 (1896) ; Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 218 (1904). Differs from H. chalybeata only in the gloss on the plumage of the males being violet shaded blue, with no green. The Ultramarine Combasou ranges from the Gold Coast to the Niger and eastward over Northern Tropical Africa to as far north at 23° N. lat. Hartlaub refers a specimen in the Bremen Museum from the Gold Coast to this form, which can hardly be regarded as more than a subspecies of H. chalybeata. In Togoland it has been obtained by Mr. Biittner at Bismarckburg and by Lieut. Thierry at Mangu. In the British Museum there are specimens from Abeokuta and from Rabba on the Niger. Dr. Hartert refers the specimen he procured at Loko to H. ultramarina, and one obtained by Wilson at Yelwa, in the Borgu province of Central Nigeria, he makes the type of a new species, H. wilsoni. In Hquatorial Africa specimens have been collected by Emin at Lado and Rimo ; the former Dr. Hartert refers to H. ultramarina and the latter to H. xnea. Mr. Oscar Neumann refers a specimen shot in Uganda in May to H. purpurascens, and one from Kavirondo, killed in February, to H. ultramarina. To this latter form Dr. Bowdler Sharpe refers all Fischer's specimens, and those obtained by Mr. Jackson at Kikumbuliu in December, and at Njemps in July, which had the bill whitish horn colour and the legs pink, and remarks that they agree with the series in the British Museum from Abyssinia and the White Nile. In Somaliland the genus has been met with by M. Revoil. In Southern Abyssinia Lord Lovat shot a full plumaged male at the Kassim River, January 18, 1899, and according to his notes the bill and legs were pale coral. Quite black examples HYPOCHERA ULTRAMARINA 9 of this bird were rare, only one or two being seen among large flocks. Mr. Pease obtained a male in full plumage at Adis Ababa, January 15. It had the bill pinkish white and the legs orange red. In Shoa Dr. Ragazzi procured a male at Farré, July 30, and two females at the Hawash River, August 7. The male was of a glossy blue-black, with the bill pale flesh colour ; the females had the bill red and the feet pale flesh colour. Mr. A. L. Butler has kindly sent me from Khartoum two males, both of which were breeding; one, shot April 16, is in the complete glossy blue black plumage ; the other, on November 8, is in the brown livery, with the exception of two glossy black feathers, freshly assumed, and it shows no other sign of moulting. ‘ These birds,” he writes, ‘‘ were sometimes very tame, but less so than Lagonosticta brunneiceps, with which they are frequently associated. They were abundant along the White Nile from Khartoum to Kawa from August to March, when they were in their full plumage. This leaves them only four months to go through two complete moults, Do they change after assuming the blue plumage once? I certainly saw only brown birds at Gedaref in May, 1901, but both of those I shot were hens.” Ihave already mentioned the fact that cage-birds have been known to retain the glossy black plumage for as many as five consecutive years, so we may presume they do the same in the wild state. There is another interesting point in Mr. Butler’s observations : “ The young birds are apparently fit to breed before they have assumed the black plumage for the first time.” According to Heuglin, they are resident and abundant in Nubia, frequenting the native villages in company with Lagonosticta brunneiceps. They are lively little birds, which enter the houses in search of food and water. The males moult into their bright breeding plumage towards the commencement of the rainy season. They prefer to frequent the clay huts 10 HYPOCHERA FUNEREA of the Nubians to the straw-thatched houses of the Soudanese and usually more than one pair live about the same farm- building. The song is not remarkable and the call-note is a very sharp harsh chirp. The nest, according to Brehm, is built indifferently on trees or in the roofs of houses or holes in walls, and much resembles that of our House-Sparrow, and is con- structed of straw, rags, cotton, feathers and so on, lined with hair and shreds. Occasionally they will take possession of a deserted Swallow’s nest or a hole in a tree. The eggs are three to five in a clutch, of a bluish white colour, and measure 0°6 x 0:44, Hypochera funerea. Fringilla funerea, De Tarrag. Rev. Zool. 1847, p. 180 Natal. Hypochera funerea, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii, p. 810 (1890); Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 309 (1896) ; Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 215 (1904). Hypochera funerea purpurascens (non Reichen.) Neum. J. f. O. 1900, p. 285 Uganda. Hypochera wilsoni, Hartert Nov. Zool. 1901, pp. 342, 348, Velwa. Similar to H. ultramarina, but differing in the quills and tail being of a paler brown and in haying more white on the under surface of the wing; no greenish blue gloss on the plumage. The Mourning Combasou ranges from the Niger through Central Africa to Natal. In the British Museum there is a Specimen procured by Mr, Robin at Abeokuta, which has been referred to this form, but as it was along time in spirits, this determination may not be correct, so I prefer to regard the type of H. wilsoni from Yelwa in Central Nigeria as coming from the most northern known range for this species. The genus Hypochera has not been recorded from Western Africa between the N iger and the Congo, nor to the south of Damaraland. The present species is, however, generally distributed over Central Africa to as far south as Natal and Zululand, Specimens having been HYPOCHERA NIGERRIMA 11 collected at Bukoba (Stuhlmann), Kampala (Neumann), Mamboio (Kirk), Karema (Bohm), Magnua (Fiilleborn), and at many places in Nyasaland ; the type came from Natal, and the Messrs. Woodwards obtained specimens at Eschowe in Zulu- land. From Nyasaland there is a good series in the British Museum obtained at Zomba, Lake Shirwa, Dedza, Fort Lister, Namiwawa and Malosa, in full plumage in April, July, Sep- tember and December, and according to Mr. Alfred Sharpe the bird is known to the natives as the ‘‘ Mlimba.” Hypochera nigerrima. Hypochera nigerrima, Sharpe, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 133 Galungo-alto ; id. Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 811 (1890); Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 310 (1896) ; Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 216 (1904). Hypochera funerea nigerrima, Stark, Faun. 8. Afr. B. i. p. 154 (1900). Hypochera purpurascens, Reichen. J. f. O. 1883, p. 221 Usegua, Lindt ; Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 308 (1896). Similar to H. funerea, but distinguished by the gloss on the full plumaged males being duller and blacker. The Black Combasou ranges from the Congo into the Lake Ngami district and eastward to Lindi and the Usegua country. This form has been procured at Kassongo (Bohndorff), Galungo-alto (Hamilton), Kahata (Anchieta), Nukana, to the north of Lake Ngami (Fleck), Mauser, on the Zambesi (Alexander), Zomba and Fort Lister (Whyte), Undis (Fiille- born), Lindi and Usegua (Fischer). On the Zambesi as well as in Nyasaland and the Usegua country both this form and H. funerea have been obtained, and the ranges of both are comprised in that of H. amauwropterya, which detracts somewhat from the specific value of the shade of the gloss on the plumage, by which character only can they be distinguished. 12 HYPOCHERA AMAUROPTERYX Hypochera amauropteryx. Hypochera amauropteryx, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 309 (1890) ; Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 311 (1896); Reichen. Vég. Afr, iii. p. 215. Hypochera funerea amauropteryx, Stark, Faun. 8. Afr. B. i. p. 154 (1900). Hypochera ultramarina orientalis, Reichen. Vég. D. O. Afr. p. 188 (1894) Pare, Arusha, Nguruman, Karema, Kageyi, Bukoba. Similar to H. funerea and H. nigerrima, but distinguished by the gloss on the full plumaged males being of a greenish blue shade. The Brown-winged Combasou ranges from the Congo southward through Ondonga into the Transvaal and over central and eastern South Tropical Africa. On the western side of the continent it has been obtained at Kossango (Bohndorff), Malandji in Angola (Schitt), Gambos and Humpata (Kellen), Ondonga (Andersson). The most southern range yet recorded for this form is the Transvaal, where the type was obtained by Mr. Barratt at Rustenburg, and from the same place a similar bird was pro- cured on January 5 by Mr. W. Lucas, who notes: “Bill dark pink, tarsi and feet yellowish.” Layard mentions the bill as being red, and according to Stark all the South African forms have the bill white and the feet red. Besides the specimens already noticed, I have examined one procured by Gueinzius at Mosambique, one of Bradshaw’s from north of the Limpopo, two of Sir John Kirk’s from Tete, and one from South Angoniland close to Nyasa Lake. Dr. Reichenow gives the names of thirteen localities where it has been procured in German Hast Africa, also Kikumbuliu and Njemps (Jackson) and Kikuyu (Doherty) in our British Protectorate. In the Uniamwesi country Speke found them common in the villages, feeding like Sparrows. At Kitui in Ukamba, according to Hildebrandt, their native name is ‘“ Tchorelli.” VIDUA 13 Genus II. VIDUA. In the males only, a great change takes place by the spring moult, the four centre tail-feathers becoming very much elongated, while the brown mottled colouring is replaced by a more becoming unspotted plumage. Bill often red, rather stout and shorter than the head; culmen curved; nasal aperture rounded and covered by the frontal feathers. Primaries: 3, 4 and 5 the longest, 2 about equal to 6. Tail shorter than the wing and nearly square, excepting in males in breeding plumage. Tarsi and feet fairly slender, with the claws rather long and curved. The nestlings are uniform brown. Type. Vidua, Cuy. Legons Anat. Comp. i. Tabl. 2 (1800) . V. serena. Videstrelda, Lafresn. Rey. et Mag. Zool. 1850, p. 325 ? V. regia. Steganura, Reichenb. Syst. Av. pl. 76, fig. 3 (1850) . V. paradisea. Viduella, Reichenb. Singv. p. 59 (1863) . . . . . Vz. swperciliosa. Tetrenura, Reichenb. t.c.p.61 . . . .. . . Vi regia. Linura, Reichen. Orn. Centralbl. 1882, p. 91. . . V.z fischeri. The five known species of this genus are confined to Tropi- eal and South Africa. It is unnecessary to break up such a well-marked genus into four, which can be done solely upon the form of the elongated tail-feathers assumed by the males for the courting season. IT call the members of this genus Whydahs, they being as well known by that name as by that of Widows, and the former name has priority, having been used by Latham in 1783. Whydah is the name of a town on the coast of West Africa in 2° H. long. KEY TO THE SPECIES. a. Four centre tail-feathers very much elongated Malesin breeding plumage. a+, Bill red; elongated tail-feathers narrow. a?, Elongated tail-feathers black. a. Hlongated tail-feathers of moderate breadth throughout their length. a*, Entireplumageglossy greenish black hypocherina. b+. Underparts white . . . . . . serena. 14 VIDUA HYPOCHERINA b§. Hlongated tail-feathers very narrow ; under parts buff. . . SP ee egies b2. Hlongated tail-feathers buff igye fischeri. - 22 b+, Bill black; elongated tail-feathers ee broad. . . : . paradisea, &. 25 b. Four centre tail- feathers a elweatede . . Males in winter, females and young birds. ct. Some black on sides of head; sides of crown black. c?. Centre of crown nearly white ; bill dusky horn colour ; larger, wing about 3 inches paradisea. |» 2 — d*. Centre of crown pale rufous; bill red ; smaller, wing about 2°5. c®. More white on under parts . . . . hypocherina. d®, Less white on under parts . . . . serena. d1, No black on sides of head. e?. Upper parts strongly mottled . . . . Adults. e%. Sides of crown mottled with brown . regia. f3. Crown rufous shaded brown, streaked on the hinder half with black . . . fischerv. f2. Upper parts uniform brown or irregularly MOtbled) Weyer yen) ne NeemOUngNOpaliepectes. Vidua hypocherina. Vidua hypocherina, J. H. Verr. Rev. et Mag. Zool. 1856, p. 260, pl. 16 Paris Mus.; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 208 (1890); Shelley, B. Afr. I. No, 313 (1896); Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 216 (1904). Vidua splendens, Reichen. Orn. Centralbl. 1879, p. 180; id. J. f. 0.1879, p- 326 Kibaradja; Forbes, P. Z. S. 1880, p. 457, pl. 47, figs. 1, 3. Male in breeding plumage. Head, neck, body and scapulars glossy blue black, slightly shaded with green towards the upper tail-coverts; tail with the four elongated feathers black glossed with green, and the remain- ing feathers dark brown, with white edges, broadest on their inner webs; wing dark brown, with broad, glossy, greenish blue edges to the inner feathers, and narrow buff edges to the primaries; under wing-coverts and a broad portion of the inner webs of the quills white. ‘Iris dusky brown; bill and legs dusky ’’ (Hawker) ; ‘bill and feet bright coral red” (W. A. Forbes). Total length 10-7 inches, culmen 0-35, wing 2°6, tail 8:5, tarsus 0:6. Ugogo (Kirk). Adult female. Centre of crown rufous buff, flanked on each side by a broad black band from the nostrils to the nape; a broad white eyebrow shaded in front and behind with rufous buff like the cheeks and ear-coverts, VIDUA HYPOCHERINA 15 the latter surmounted by a black band; hind neck, back and wings mottled brownish black, with broad rufous buff edges to the feathers; edges of some of the median coverts and very narrow pale edges to the primaries white ; tail brownish black with white edges to the feathers; under surface white washed with rufous buff on the sides of the crop and body, which latter parts are slightly streaked with brown shaft-stripes. Iris brown, bill and legs pale brown. Total length 4:2 inches, culmen 0°35, wing 2:0, tail 1:8, tarsus 0°55. Lamu (Jackson). Adult male in winter. Similar in plumage to the female. Lamu (Jackson). Immature. Differs in plumage from the adult female in being of a more uniform sandy colour, with the dark markings of the head, neck and back imperfectly developed. 9 3.12.97. Arabsiyo (Hawker). The Splendid Black Whydah ranges from Ugogo into Somaliland and South Abyssinia. The most southern range known to me for this species is Ugogo, a country due west of Zanzibar. Here Sir John Kirk procured an adult and an immature bird which are now in the British Museum, where there are also specimens from the plains to the south of the Kilimanjaro Mountain, shot by Mr. H. C. V. Hunter, and another one in full plumage obtained by Mr. Jackson at Lake Jipe, September 27, 1885, out of a large flock of the much commoner J. serena. At Ituru they have been found by Mr. Werther. Fischer met with the species at Nguruman near Lake Naiwasha, and procured the type of V. splendens at Kibaradja on the Tana River in November. He found these birds in flocks of from ten to thirty in company with Lagonosticta brunneiceps and Vidua serena feeding on the bare ground, where caravans had halted and left scattered corn behind. In Somaliland Mr. Hawker saw these birds only at Arabsiyo and Hargeisa; at the latter place they joined in flocks with other Finches on the “ jowari” stubbles. The most northern known range for this species is Marko, 9° 30’ N. lat. 41 H. long., where Mr. Pease obtained a hen bird in December. The species has not been recorded upon satisfactory 16 VIDUA SERENA authority from west of 35° E. long. Rochebrune mentions several localities for it in Senegambia, but no one else has recorded it from that part of the continent. The types of the species were given to the Paris Museum in 1852, by Commandant Guislain, and although labelled in that Museum as coming from Gaboon, M. Oustalet rightly doubts the accuracy of the locality; and I may remark that the same supposed Gaboon collection contained many other Hast African forms, such as Passer castanopterus, &c. The spring and autumn moults take place about March and November, and the colour of the bill and legs also changes. The specimen figured by Forbes was presented to the Zoo- logical Gardens by Mr. Archibald Brown on July 17, 1878, when it was in immature plumage. In that summer it assumed the black dress, and was moulting in the following March when it died. Vidua serena. Emberiza serena, Linn. 8. N. i. p. 312 (1766). Vidua serena, Reichen. Vég. Afr. iii. p. 217 (1904). Emberiza vidua, Linn. S. N. i. p. 312 (1766) “ India” ! Emberiza principalis, Linn. 8. N. i. p. 313 Angola. Vidua principalis, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 203 (1890); Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 312 (1896) ; Whitehead, Ibis, 1903, p. 224 Orange KR. ; Short- ridge, Ibis, 1904, p. 178 Pondoland ; Grant, t. c. p. 256 Daira Aila ; Bocage, Jorn. Lisb. 1904, p. 82 St. Thomas Isl. ? Fringilla superciliosa, Vieill. N. D. xii. p. 216 (1817). Vidua erythrorhyncha, Swains. B. W. Afr. i. p. 176, pl. 12 (1837) Senegal. Vidua fuliginosa, Licht. Nomencl. p. 49 (1854). Vidua decora, Hartl. Ibis, 1862, p. 340 Angola. Estrelda carmelita, Hartl. Ibis, 1868, p. 46 Natal. Male in breeding plumage. Upper parts jet black with a clear white collar; lower back and broad edges to the tail-coverts ashy white; wing black, with the least and median coverts and edges of inner greater coverts white with a few black shafts; under surface of quills dusky black, with white inner edges to the basal half; under wing-coverts white, mottled with black on the pinion; tail black, the short feathers with white wedge- VIDUA SERENA 17 shaped marks on the end half of the inner webs, increasing rapidly in size towards the outermost ones; remainder of the head and the neck pure white like the under parts, with the sides of the head in front of the eye and sides of crop black, the latter forming an incomplete collar. Ivis brown; bill orange red ; tarsi and feet black. Total length 11-5 inches, culmen 0:35, wing 2°8, tail 9, with the short feathers 1:9, tarsus 0°65. ¢g, 29. 12. 99. Morandat R. (Delamere). Adult female. Centre of forehead and crown sandy rufous, with an equally broad band of black on each side from the nostrils to the nape ; sides and back of neck, back and lesser wing-coverts rufous buff, with broad black centres to the feathers ; tail black, and slightly graduated, with sandy edges to the feathers, and a considerable amount of white on the inner webs, increasing in extent towards the outer ones, which have the entire inner webs white, as well as rather broad white edges to the outer webs; wing brownish black; primary-coverts and primaries uniform ; remainder of coverts and the secondaries with rufous buff edges, broadest on the feathers nearest to the back; basal portion of inner edges of quills and the under- coverts white mottled with black on the pinion ; eyebrow buff, shading into sandy rufous from the eye to the nape ; a broad black band through the eye and a narrow one along the cheeks; remainder of the sides of the head white like the under parts generally ; crop and sides of body shaded with sandy rufous ; flanks streaked with dusky brown. “Iris brown; bill like pink coral; tarsi and feet black” (Savile Reid). Total length 4:7 inches, culmen 0:35, wing 2:7, tail 2, tarsus 0°6. 9, 18.6. 81. Newcastle (Butler), Male in winter plumage. Similar to the female. Wing 2°9, tail 2-2. 3, 18.6. 81. Newcastle (Butler). Young. Upper parts entirely uniform brown, slightly darker on the wings and tail, the edges of the feathers of which are of a rather more rufous shade; there is no trace of white on the tail; inner margins of quills and the under wing-coverts rufous shaded white ; sides of head whitey brown with the front part dusky ; entire under parts uniform buff, tinted with ashy brown towards the crop, and with a tawny shade on the breast and under tail-coverts. ‘Iris dusky, bill horn colour with the base reddish, tarsi and feet dark brown.” Total length 4:5 inches, culmen 0°35, wing 2°6, tail 1-9, tarsus 0°6. 28.1.81. Rustenburg (W. Lucas). The White-breasted Whydah inhabits Africa generally south of about 17° N. lat., also the islands of St. Thomas and Fernando Po. From Senegal Swainson obtained the type of his V. ery- throrhyncha, which has been nicely figured, and, I may remark, shows a considerable amount of black on the chin, a character [October, 1904, 2 18 VIDUA SERENA I have generally found most strongly developed in birds from Senegambia and British Hast Africa. In Liberia Mr. Biittikofer found the species common on the deserted farm-lands which had become overgrown with grass and bushes; he also met with it frequenting gardens in the centre of villages, and congregating in large flocks after the breeding season. When I was on the Gold Coast with T. E. Buckley we frequently met with these birds in small flocks along the roads near Cape Coast and Accra; but in February and March none of the males had assumed their full breeding plumage, and for that reason possibly we did not find out, as Gordon informs us, that they were looked upon here by the natives as sacred or “ Fetish ”’ birds. On the Island of St. Thomas it is very common, according to Mr. Francis Newton, and Mr. Boyd Alexander has found it on Fernando Po. Linneus described the type of his Emberiza principalis from Angola, and this name has generally, but wrongly, been given precedence over his Hmberiza serena. In the same country Mr. Monteiro procured the type of Vidua decora which is now in the British Museum. It was described as distinct from V. erythrorhyncha, Swainson, on account of its having the chin entirely white. In Benguela, according to Anchieta, the species is known to the natives by several names: at Quillengues as “ Cahengua”’ and at Quindumbo as “ Genge”’ and ‘“ Columbaquindionjio.” It is certainly abundant throughout this country; but from the Cunene River southward to Cape Town it appears to be less common than in any other portion of its range, and is here somewhat replaced by V. regia, which is the commonest species of Vidua in this large area. In other parts of South Africa, according to Stark, it largely outnumbers its congeners, and in many districts is a very common bird. VIDUA SERENA 19 Mr. Layard remarks that it is known to the Dutch colonists as “Koning Roodebec,” or “King of the Red-bills,” and is found in small flocks throughout Cape Colony. He was one of the first to observe that the males assume their remarkable plumage for the breeding season only, after which they moult back into the winter garb, which much resembles that of the female. During the autumn and winter months they often feed in flocks, 1m company with other Finches, and according to Stark, “in summer they disperse in small parties, each con- sisting of a single male and from ten to forty or even fifty females.” Mr. T. Ayres writes: “The male of this species has a curious habit of hovering over its mate when she is feeding on the ground, bobbing up and down as you see the May-flies and midgets do on a summer’s evening in England. This exercise he generally continues some minutes without resting.” Stark observes: ‘‘ Like the other Weaver-birds, the present species feeds upon small seeds, principally grass seeds, also upon small insects and their eggs. Its ordinary call-note is a sharp chirp, but in spring the male utters a soft warbling song from the top of a bush or tall weed. In Natal this species breeds during the wet season, from November to the end of February or beginning of March. A somewhat openly woven domed nest of fine grass is suspended between the stems of a thick grass tuft a few inches off the ground, the ends of the growing grass being tied together over the nest so as to completely conceal it. The only nest that I have seen contained young birds from three to four in number.” The egg is glossy greyish white, with underlying violet marks and clear black or dark brown elongated surface-marks, evenly distributed. It measures 0°68 X 0°50. The type of Estrelda carmelita, Hartl., is a young bird of this species, in the uniform brown plumage; it was shot by Mr. T. Ayres on the banks of Little Bushman River, near Maritzburg, in Natal. 20 VIDUA SERENA In the Transvaal, according to Dr. Rendall, the species is common in the Barberton district and locally known as the ** Kaffir Fink.” Along the Zambesi, Sir John Kirk records it as “‘common everywhere, not limited to grass plains, but frequenting woods and coming near houses,” and Mr. Boyd Alexander writes : “ Breeds in large colonies, suspending their nests from the topmost twigs of tall acacia trees. They keep much to the waste plots of land near villages. The males have a laboured flight, as if they were weighed down by their long tails, which they commence to assume towards the end of October ; in a flock the males predominate to a very large extent over the females.” It might appear that in this last sentence the words ‘*males”’ and ‘‘ females’ have been misplaced in the printing, but possibly at the time he made these notes the females were sitting on their eggs, In North-east Africa, according to Heuglin, the males during the breeding season may often be seen perched on the crown of a tree, singing. He further remarks that he never met with the species nesting on the ground, as Layard and Ayres did in South Africa, but, in the beginning of the rainy season, found the nest suspended some five or six feet over water; from the end twigs of a bough some three or four leaves were woven together at their ends, forming a bag lined with cotton and hair, with the interior cavity rather deep. From Central and Hastern Africa, where the species is about equally abundant everywhere, there have been very few notes made of any interest; Fischer remarks that the birds are said by the natives to be polygamous, and he observes that the cocks were generally accompanied by two or three hens, or feeding in flocks in the open country. Dr. Hinde, while he was at Machako’s, found flocks of these birds common in the swamps and reed-beds; Mr. Pease met with them, generally near VIDUA REGIA 21 water, frequenting the high trees and the thick bush. Heuglin records them as ranging northward to between 16° and 17° N. lat., and not ascending the mountains beyond 7,000 feet ; he met with them in T’akah, Sennar, Kordofan and along the White Nile, singly or in pairs, but in the autumn more usually in family parties, frequenting the higher branches of trees in damp places and forest country, as well as the bushes in the more open districts, also the pasture land, hedges and plan- tation near habitations. The Hon. N. C. Rothschild and Mr. Wollaston have procured the species as far north as Shendi on the Nile. Mr. A. L. Butler procured a male in full plumage at Fachi Shoya in November, and writes, ‘‘ A much scarcer bird here than V. paradisea.” The time of the two seasonal moults to which these birds are subject appears to vary with the climate; the males assume their beautiful plumage as soon as the rainy season sets in, which is also the commencement of the breeding season and spring of the year, and retain it for about five months; thus in South Africa it lasts from October to March, and north of the Equator from the end of March to the end of July; but these dates do not, I think, hold as a hard and fast rule, possibly owing to the different age and constitution of the birds them- selves; but I doubt if any of these males fail to go through the two complete moults during the year. Vidua regia. Emberiza regia, Linn. S. N. i. p, 313 (1766) Africa. Vidua regia, Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 315 (1896). Tetreenura regia, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 209 (1890); Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 221 (1904). Shaft-tailed Bunting, Lath. Gen. Syn. ii. pt. i. p. 183 (1783). La Veuve a quatre Brins, Vieill. Ois. Chant. p. 59, pls. 34, 35 (1805). Male in breeding plumage. Forehead, crown, sides of head in front of the eyes, back of lower neck, back, four elongated tail-feathers, inner 22 VIDUA REGIA half of the wings, lower flanks and the under tail-coverts, black ; remainder of plumage, with the exception of the wings and tail, rufous buff; primaries and outer secondaries dark brown, with very narrow outer edges and broad incomplete white inner edges; under wing-coverts white; four short outer pairs of tail-feathers dark brown, with whité terminal patches on the inner webs of the outer three pairs. ‘Iris dark hazel; bill, legs and claws coral red” (F. Oates). Total length 12-3 inches, culmen 0:35, wing 2°8, tail 9:8, tarsus 0°65. g, 13. 2.75. Omaruru (Andersson). Adult female. Head and neck buff, with a broad dark brown band on each side of the crown from the nostrils to the nape, formed by the feathers having broad dark brown centres similar to those of the hind neck and mantle ; tail short and square, the feathers blackish brown edged with buff, and the three outer pairs fade into that colour towards the ends of their inner webs ; wings blackish brown, the coverts broadly edged with brownish buff, and the quills more narrowly so; under wing-coverts white, under surface of quills paler brown than above and with whitish inner margins ; throat and sides of body sandy buff, fading into white on the remainder of the breast and the under tail-coverts. Total length 4:3 inches; culmen 0°35; wing 2°7, tail 1-7, tarsus 0°6. 2, 28.11.66. Ondonga (Andersson). Adult male in winter. Similar in plumage to the female. Immature. Differs from the adult female in the upper parts being of a much more uniform sandy brown; crown uniform brown, and the sides of the head and back of neck uniform tawny buff. The Southern Shaft-tailed Whydah inhabits Southern Africa between 15° S. lat. and 31° S. lat., and westward from 30° E. long. The most northern localities known to me for the species are Huilla in Mossamedes and Tati in Matabeleland; the most southern, Colesberg in Eastern Cape Colony. This is not an unlikely species to have been shipped as a cage-bird to Bissao, where Beauduin obtained a specimen, and this may account for Vieillot and Bonaparte believing it to be a native of West Africa. In Mossamedes specimens have been collected by Anchieta at Huilla and by Van der Kellen near Humbe in the Upper Cunene district. To the south of the Cunene River the species is resident and more abundant, especially in German South- west Africa. Layard records a specimen shot by Mr. Arnot at VIDUA FISCHERI 23 Colesberg, which is the only instance I know of its having been met with in Cape Colony. Mr. Barratt found it dis- tributed over the country from Kimberley to Rustenburg, but considered it to be of rare occurrence in the latter district. According to Stark, who met with the species in Natal only, it is polygamous, each male, in spring, being accompanied by ten or twelve females. At this season the beautiful cocks are very pugnacious, and are constantly fighting and chasing one another, their long tails by no means incommoding their flight, as is the case with V. serena. They are, indeed, of much more active habits than are the latter birds. Their call-note is a sharp chirp occasionally uttered, but the cock in moments of excitement indulges in a short and rather feeble song. ‘They feed almost entirely on grass seeds. Buckley found the species at the Limpopo. Oates collected four specimens at Tati in Matabeleland, in which country Jameson and Ayres saw several chasing each other near Selenia Pan and found them fairly abundant at Kanye, affect- ing well-wooded country with open patches of grass-land. Vidua fischeri. Linura fischeri, Reichen. Orn. Centralb. 1882, p. 91 Usegua; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 210 (1890) Kilimanjaro; Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 222 (1904). Vidua (Linura) fischeri, Reichen. J. f. O. 1882, pl. 2, fig. 1. Vidua fischeri, Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 314 (1896). Male in breeding plumage. Forehead and crown sandy buff; remainder of the head and the entire neck jet black; mantle, wings and short tail- feathers more dusky black, with some narrow pale brown edges to the feathers ; lower back and upper tail-coverts pale brown, with narrow dark centres to most of the feathers; the four narrow elongated tail-feathers sandy buff of the same shade as the crown, breast, thighs and under tail- coverts ; flanks slightly streaked with dark brown; under surface of wings black, with some narrow buff edges to the coverts. ‘Iris brown; bill and legs orange red.” Total length 10-1 inches, culmen 0°35, wing 2°6, tail 7-7, tarsus 0°6. ¢, 9.12.0. Hrrer Goata (Pease). 24 VIDUA FISCHERI Adult female. Above mottled, blackish brown, with broad buffy brown edges to the feathers ; forehead and crown pale rufous, with black stripes on the hinder part and shading into rufous buff on the sides of the head ; under parts white, shaded with sandy buff on the base of throat and sides of body; under surface of wings dusky brown, with whitish edges to the coverts. ‘ Bill red; iris and legs light brown.” Total length 4-5 inches, wing 2°6, tail 18. 9, 30.11.97. Arabsyo (Hawker). Male in winter. Similar in colouring to the female. ¢, 2.12. 97. Arabsyo (Hawker). Fischer’s Shaft-tailed Whydah inhabits Eastern Africa from Usegua to Shoa, between 6° 8. lat. and 11° N. lat. The most southern range known for the species is the Usegua country near Mount Kipumbui, where the species has been procured by Fischer, who discovered the type on the highlands of Motiom, which rise to the north-west of Kiliman- jaro, and he collected other specimens at Nguruman near Naiwasha Lake. In the British Museum there are two adult males from the Kilimanjaro district, collected by Mr. Jackson and Mr. Hunter. The former naturalist obtaining a good series of six specimens between Ndai and Kinani, April 2, 1894; these he shot out of a small flock at a water-hole in the wilderness. Other flocks of V. serena and V. hypocherina were also present, but each species kept apart from the others. V. fischert was in full plumage and evidently breeding at this season, and he remarks that the female, as might have been expected, is very similar to the hen of /. serena, but has an almost uniform reddish brown head with no lateral black bands, and the soft parts are akin to those of the male: “ Bill dull pink, feet pale dusky pink, iris brown. The adult males having the iris brown, the feet bright coral red, and the bill dull coral red.” In Somaliland the species was first obtained by Révoil. Prince Ruspoli shot specimens at a water-hole to the south of the Ogodan district; Dr. Donaldson Smith met with it at VIDUA PARADISEA 25 Goura in September, and at Bussaler in November, and Mr. Elliot obtained it at Hillier. Mr. Hawker, on November 30 and December 2, observed it in flocks near the water at Arabsiyo and Gebili; they were then in winter plumage and had congregated in flocks, and were conspicuous only by their red bill. Lord Lovat shot one at Hargeisa in Northern Somali- land, and Mr. Pease found the species in Southern Abyssinia, in the high trees bordering the marshes of the Errer Gota River, and never in any other locality. In Shoa Dr. Ragazzi procured two specimens in full plumage in August. Towards the end of that month the males moult into the winter plumage, which closely resembles that of the females, and the spring moult takes place about March. Vidua paradisea. Emberiza paradisea, Linn. 8. N. (ed. x.) p. 178 (1758) ; id. (ed. xii.) i. p.312 (1766) Angoia. Vidua paradisea, Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 316 (1896). Steganura paradisea, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 211 (1890); Reichen. Vog. Afr. ii. p. 223 (1904); Grant, Ibis, 1904, p. 257 Tadejemulka ; Bocage, Jorn. Lisb. 1904, p. 82 ‘ St. Thomas Isl. ?”; Reichen. Vég. Afr. iii. p. 223 (1904). Vidua verreauni, Cass. Pr. Philad. Ac. 1850 (June), p. 56 Abyssinia. Steganura sphenura, Bp. Comsp. i. p. 449 (1850, July) Abyssima. Vidua paradisea orientalis, Heugl. Orn. N. O. Afr. p. 583 (1870). Whydah Bird, Lath. Gen. Syn. ii. pt. i. p. 178 (1783). La Veuve au Collier d’Or, Vieill. Ois. Chant. p. 63, pls. 37, 38 (1805). Male in breeding plumage. Entire head, throat, back, wings, tail, sides of abdomen and the under tail-coverts black, hinder half of the neck and the breast buff, with the crop and front of chest chestnut; under surface of e quills ashy brown, with the inner edges white like the under wing-coverts, he latter mottled with black at the bend of the wing. ‘‘ Iris dark brown ; bill black ; tarsi and feet dusky brown” (T. Ayres). Total length 16 inches, culmen 0°45, wing 3, tail 13-3, tarsus 0°7. ¢, 30.3.73. Tati (F. Oates). Adult female. Head buffy white, with a broad black band on each side of the crown above the eyebrows from the nostrils to the nape; a black patch on the upper and hinder portion of the ear-coverts and a dusky spot on the lower portion; the buff of the crown mottled on the hinder half 26 VIDUA PARADISEA with black; back of neck ang mantle sandy brown, mottled with black centres to the feathers ; lower back and upper tail-coverts uniform ashy brown ; wings and tail dark brown, with some pale edges to the feathers ; under wing-coverts and inner margins of the quills white, the former mottled with black along the bend of the wing; throat and under surface of body white, shaded with sandy brown on the crop and sides of the body ; lower throat and flanks slightly marked with dusky stripes. ‘‘ Iris dusky brown; bill light dusky brown, lower mandible pale; tarsi and feet pale.” Total length 5:25 inches, culmen 0:45, wing 3, tail 2-4, tarsus 0°65. 9, 28.11. 82. Rustenburg (T. Ayres). Immature. Upper parts uniform earthy brown, often mottled with a few black feathers; sides of head, throat and sides of body uniform pale brown fading into white on the centre of the abdomen and the under tail- coverts. Adult males in winter plumage. Similar to the females. The Paradise Whydah ranges over Africa generally south of 17° N. lat. In West Africa specimens have been procured by Laglaise at St. Louis on the mouth of the Senegal River, by Marche at Daranka and Bathurst, and Beaudouin at Casamanse. Between this latter place and Gambaga, a distance of 900 miles, I do not find any record regarding the occurrence of this Species, yet it appears to be fairly plentiful in Togoland, where specimens have been collected at Bismarckburg, Krachi and Jendi. On following down the West Coast I again find no record of the species for another 1,500 miles, till we come to Angola: here the type was discovered, and in the British Museum there is a full-plumaged male procured by Toulson at Loanda. To the south of the Quanza River specimens have been collected by Anchieta at Capangombe and Quillingues, and, according to Prof. Barboza du Bocage, it is fairly abundant from Loanda to Mossamedes. The only specimen recorded from St. Thomas Island was probably a cage-bird. Andersson found it not unfrequent at Lake Ngami, but scarce in Damara- land, and Mr. Fleck has procured specimens at Moxowi in the Kalahari district. I cannot trace the species further south in VIDUA PARADISEA 27 Western Africa, and it has not been recorded from Cape Colony to the west of Kingwilliamstown, but Mr. Barratt met with it at the Diamond-fields near Kimberley. In Zululand the Messrs. Woodwards procured a series of adult males and two females at Hschowe and two others at the Black Umfolosi River, so that it would appear to be plentiful in that country. According to Stark: ‘‘ This species, nowhere very abundant in South Africa, is still not rare in some parts of Natal and the Eastern Transvaal, in rather open ‘bush-veldt,’ localities in which little oases of grass are more or less surrounded by thorny bushes. The handsome cock, in spring and summer, is fond of perching on a prominent bush, from which he takes short undulating flights, returning invariably to the same perch. Occasionally he will hover for a few seconds over the grass in which one of his little brown mates is hidden, for he has many, from ten to fifty or more. At short intervals he utters a flute-like note, and now and then a few bars of his love song. When at rest the long tail-feathers are allowed to hang down, but in flight they are carried horizontally. Like the other Widow-birds, this species feeds almost entirely on grass seeds. The change of plumage, from winter to spring livery, in the males is completed in about six weeks.” Mr. T. Ayres remarks: ‘“ During the breeding season, when the won- derful tail of the cock bird is fully developed, he will some- times rise until nearly out of sight, when he suddenly descends with much velocity, and, if approached, makes off with ease and swiftness.” He further writes in 1885: ‘ This handsome Vidua is becoming much more plentiful amongst the Magalies- bergen than it used to be years back. Then it was scarcely known in the Rustenberg district, where it is now by no means uncommon. This species assumes its nuptial plumage later in the season than most of the family, not being in full dress till the latter end of December.” 28 VIDUA PARADISEA Sir John Kirk found the species in full plumage, in January and February, frequenting the grassy plains of the Zambesi and Shiré Rivers. In this part of Africa, according to Mr. Boyd Alexander, it is not nearly so common as JV. serena. In Nyasa- land it is known to the natives as the ‘‘ Namdumbo,” and specimens have been collected at Zomba, Fort Lister, Songue, Namaramba, Ntondwe, Chiradzulu, Mpimbi and Chanda, Throughout Eastern Africa it is abundant, and generally. to be met with in small flocks of from ten to twenty, consisting of a single male and his many wives, often feeding on the ground in company with other species of small Weavers. In Ugogo, according to Dr. Pruen, their native name is ‘ Tumbwe.” In the Teita district Hildebrandt found the cocks in full plumage from February to July, accompanied by many hens and distinguished in the Kikamba language as “ Mal-nguru” on account of their long tails. Mr. Jackson met with the species plentifully distributed along the coast and inland from Kilimanjaro to Lake Baringo. In Somaliland, Fischer procured the species at Barawa, Mr. F. Gillett others at Wachali, and Mr. Hawker found it plentiful at Hargeisa and Arabsiyo. From Central Africa there are in the British Museum a full- plumaged male obtained in Uganda by Dr. McCarthy Morrogh, and several in winter plumage from Kaka and Ed Duem on the White Nile. Regarding these latter Mr. Hawker, who collected them, remarks that the species was not common and he never saw any with the long tail-feathers; this was in April and May. Mr. A. L. Butler writes to me from Khartoum: “In June I found them tolerably plentiful in the thorn bushes north of the Rahat River (a tributary of the Blue Nile); the males were all beginning to assume breeding plumage, but none at that date had the long tails. I saw a male in full breeding plumage COLIUSPASSER 29 at Duem, September 30, and numerous males, with long tails, at Jebel Ain, November 15, and at Kawa on the following day. At this date a few of the males had shed one or two of the long tail-feathers. I also saw males still with their long tails on January 2 and 3, at Fatasha Wells, twenty miles west of Omdurman. I have seen males in full plumage from Western Kordofan, collected by Captain H. N. Dunn in October. They seem here to begin to change into the nuptial plumage in June, have acquired the long-tailed feathers by August or September, and retain them till December or January.” From Abyssinia came the types of Vidua verreauwi, Stega- nura sphenura and Vidua paradisea orientalis. In this district, according to Heuglin, it is generally distri- buted and very common to as far north as Bogosland, but does not range further north than 17° N. lat., nor ascend the highlands above 7,000 feet. He met with them moulting out of the breeding plumage in October, and in large flocks in the autumn. In the British Museum there are several specimens from Ailet and Koomaylei, including a male shot by General Sturt in March, which is in full breeding plumage. The egg is grey, so very closely spotted with black that the pale ground-colour is scarcely visible, and measures 0°8 x 0°56. Genus III. COLIUSPASSER. This genus is distinguished from all the other Ploceide by the males assuming, for the breeding season, an elongated graduated tail of very flexible feathers. It resembles Urobrachya (its nearest ally) and Pyromelana in acquiring, by a spring moult, a frill of rather broad lengthened feathers on the sides and back of the neck. In its other characters, such as the short, narrow and sharply pointed first primary, coupled with the mottled brown plumage of the adult male in winter, it shows its close affinities with the Viduine only. 30 COLIUSPASSER Type. Coliuspasser, Riipp. N. Wirb. p. 98, PI. 36, fig. 2 (1835-40) . . . C. laticaudus. Penthetria, Cab. Arch. f. Iatuee: 1847, p: 331 C, laticaudus. Coliostruthus, Sundey. Gifv. K. Vet. Ak. Férh. Stockh. 1849, p.158 . . . . C. laticaudus. Chera, Gray, Gen. B. ii. p. 355 (1849) . . . C. procne. Niobe, Reichenb. Singv. p. 61 (1863) . . . C. ardens. Penthetriopsis, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 220 (1890) . . . C. macrowra. Drepanoplectes, Shame; ae 1891, = 246 . C. jackson. Diatropura, Oberholser, Pr. Acad. Philad. Use hh AG) 6 6 5 6 6 4 1s 0 6 8 OF TORRE The genus is confined to Tropical and South Africa, and comprises fourteen species. Its members, as well as those of Urobrachya, may be called the Marsh Whydahs. They all frequent marshy districts, construct oval nests mostly of grass, which they generally hide amongst the herbage close to the ground, and lay spotted eggs, three, sometimes four, in number. It appears to me to be confusing rather than helping science to separate these species into several genera. The oldest name I can find for this group of birds is Coliuspasser. Have we a right to set it aside, as has been done by Dr. Sharpe (Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 215, note), or to substitute a more classical name? We are not, in my opinion, justified in doing either. Out of the eight generic names proposed for members of this genus the three following have been previously used in other branches of zoology: Penthetria, Meigen, 1802 (Dip- tera) ; Chera, Hiibn. 1816 (Lepidoptera); Niobe, Aug. 1851 (Crustacea). KEY TO THE SPECIES. a. Most of the plumage uniform black . . . . Malesinbreeding plumage. a1, Lesser wing-coverts scarlet; under wing- coverts black ; wing 4:5 to 5:5. a?, Smaller; tailshorter . . . . . . progne. }-72 b2, Larger; taillonger . ... . . . delamere. /. 33 COLIUSPASSER 31 b+. Lesser wing-coverts never scarlet; wing less than 4°5. c?. All the wing-coverts black. . Back of crown, nape and a collar Bearletpem len 1: 5 6 6 6 0 on Uelgteunelany. me red on the head: 4, A collar across the lower throat searlet or yellow ... . . . ardens. b*, Entire plumage black . . . . . concolor. d?, Lesser wing-coverts chestnut or yellow. c’. A large patch of white on the wing. c+, Lesser wing-coverts chestnut . . eques. d*. Lesser wing-coverts yellow. a>, Tail shorter, about 3-4. . . . albonotatus. b>, Tail longer, about 5:5 . . . . asymmetrurus. d’, No patch of white on the wing. e*, Lesser wing-coverts yellow. OP, Smaller; wing not more than 3:5. . Upper back yellow . . macrourus a Upper back black ; aanioantie: coverts whitish with the bend of the wing yellow. a’. Larger; wing3'5 . . . . macrocercus. b7. Smaller; wing 3-2. . . . soror. / d>, Larger; wing not less than 3.9. c®. Upper wing-coverts, excepting the least series, sandy buff ; under wing-coverts mostly black; tail-feathers very nar- row . . psammacromius. d®, Median covert alert Ces, like the outer under wing- coverts; remainder of made wing-coverts black ; _ tail- feathers broad. . . : hartlaubt. f*. Lesser wing-coverts sandy ROR scarcely darker than the under coverts ; tail very long and arched jacksoni. b. Upper parts mottled—sandy brown with blackish centres to the feathers; a broad buff eyebrow ; under parts whitish with the crop and flanks shaded with brown . . . . . Adult males in winter, fe- males, and young birds. et. Under wing-coverts black. iy) bo e?. Larger; wing more than 4 inches; lesser wing-coverts orange scarlet. f?. Wing 37; scarcely any trace of orange red on wing-coverts : g?. Wing not more than 3 inches . d+. Under wing-coverts not black. h?. Some white on the quills and greater coverts 22, No white on the wings. g®. Under wing-coverts pale dusky brown h’. Under wing-coverts whitish. g*. Hdges of lesser wing-coverts tinged with rufous ier oe ete ce, h*. Edges of lesser wing-coverts tinged with yellow 78, Under wing-coverts rufous buff. 74+, Flanks less streaked. e°, Lesser wing-coverts yellow f®. Only a trace of yellow on lesser wing-coverts k*, Flanks more striped. g®. Lesser wing-coverts yellow h®. Lesser wing-coverts chestnut 75, Lesser wing-coverts with little or no chestnut COLIUSPASSER PROGNE progne 3 ad. delamerei 3 ad. progne 2, and juv. laticaudus, ardens, con- color, $ ad. eques, albonotatus and asymmetrurus 3 ad. ardens, 2 and juv. eques 2. albonotatus, asymmetru- Tus 2. macrurus, macrocercus, soror $ ad. macrurus, macrocercus, soror @ and juy. psammacromius gf ad. jacksom g ad. jacksom, 9 and juv. Coliuspasser progne. Emberiza progne, Bodd. Tabl. Pl. Enl. p. 39 (1783). Diatropura progne, Reichen. Vég. Afr. iii. p. 144 (1904). Coliuspasser procne, Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 317 (1896) ; Whitehead, Ibis, 1903, p. 224, Orange FR. Chera procne, Sharpe Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 213 (1890) Natal, Transvaal ; Butler, Foreign Finches in Captivity, p. 286, pl. 50 (1894). Loxia caffra, Gm. 8. N. ii. p. 858 (1788). Emberiza longicauda, Gm. t. c. p. 884. hal : - COLIUSPASSER PROGNE 33 Emberiza imperialis, Shaw in Miller’s Cimel. Phys. iii. p. 7 (1796). Vidua pheenicoptera, Swains. Class. B. ii. p. 112, fig. 161 (1837). Male in breeding plumage. Black, with a bluish black gloss on the edges of the feathers of the head, neck and breast; lesser wing-coverts orange scarlet; median coverts buff with somewhat hidden black shafts ; greater coverts and the secondaries with buff edges; primaries with the ends paler and terminal buff edges; remainder of the under surface of the wing black. ‘Iris brown; bill light bluish ash; feet dark brown” (Stark). Total length 20°5 inches, culmen 0°7, wing 5:3, tail 16, tarsus 1:05. 3, 28. 10. 81. Natal (EK. A. Butler). Adult female. Upper parts mottled, the feathers all being brownish black with broad pale brown edges, of a slightly more tawny shade on the mantle, and inclining to buff on the greater wing-coverts ; inner lining of the wings ashy-brown, with the coverts black. Under parts buff, shaded with brown and with brown shaft-stripes on the middle and lower throat, as well as on the front and sides of the breast. ‘‘ Iris dark hazei; bill horn brown ; tarsi and feet pinkish brown.” Total length 6:1 inches, culmen 0:65, wing 3:7, tail2-5, tarsus 0°95. 9, 12.6.76. Natal (T. EK. Buckley). Male adult in winter plumage. Resembles the female in the form of the tail as well as in the colouring of the head, neck, body and scapulars, but differs in the wing being similar to that of the male in breeding plumage, only with the pale edges of the greater coverts and secondaries broader. Immature male. Differs from the last phase and resembles the female in the colouring of the wing, with the exception of the lesser wing-coverts, which have broad yellowish edges. The Kaffir Great-tailed Whydah ranges from Benguela into Eastern South Africa from Cape Colony to the Transvaal. In Western Africa it is known from Caconda in Benguela, where Anchieta procured two adults and two young males, while at Humpata in Mossammedes, Van der Kellen also obtained a specimen. To the south of the Cunene River I do not find the species recorded from any locality to the west of 25° H. long.; but Layard informs us that Mr. Arnold sent him several specimens from Colesberg, and according to Mr. Rickard it is common both at Port Elizabeth and East London, and we may add Natal, Zululand, the Orange River Colony and the Transvaal ; but according to Mr. T’. Ayres it does not approach the Natal [October, 1904, 3 34 COLIUSPASSER PROGNE coast within eight or ten miles. Messrs. Butler, Feilden and Reid write: ‘‘Called by the Kaffirs ‘ Saca-bulo,’ one of the commonest birds in the upper portion of the colony, but not observed in any great numbers below Howick, or rather Reit Spruit, a few miles lower down on the Pietermaritzburg road. “They roost in hundreds, or even thousands, in the reedy vleys, flock after flock pouring in from all sides about sunset till the whole place is alive with them. The males begin to assume their summer livery, with its long tail-feathers, as early as August, but some of them are not in full breeding plumage as late as October. They were still in flocks, and apparently not nesting, when we left Newcastle in November. It would seem that the black plumage and long tail are not assumed by the males during their first year (and perhaps their second), for specimens were obtained in the immature or female dress as late as October 26, which could not possibly have subsequently gone through the various stages; and this would receive confirmation from the marked preponderance of the brown tailless birds over the long-tailed males in the various flocks. So great, however, is the preponderance that it can really only be satisfactorily accounted for by assuming the species to be polygamous.” Regarding the habits of this species, Stark writes: “ This beautiful Widow Bird, remarkable for the extraordinary size of the tail of the male during the breeding season, is in many parts of Upper Natal, Zululand and the Southern Transvaal a very common summer resident on the borders of the vleis and swamps as well as on the open veldt, wherever there is a sufficient growth of grass to afford it concealment and a shelter for its nest. On bright sunny days the long-tailed males are fond of sitting on the taller heads of grass, or on some prominent bush or weed. They frequently fly from bush to bush with gracefully arched tail, apparently not much incom- COLIUSPASSER PROGNE 35 moded by its great size; but in the early morning when the grass is still wet with dew, or after a shower of rain, not a bird will be visible; they are then hiding under the grass, so hampered by their wet and heavy tails as to be unable to rise. At such times numbers are caught by the Zulu boys, who prize the long tail-feathers as head-dresses. In autumn both old and young collect in flocks of thousands and frequently leave the neighbourhood of their breeding place. At this season, until the following spring, they roost in dense reed-beds or among thick bushes. During autumn and winter they feed largely upon grass-seeds, millet and grain, in summer to a considerable extent on various insects. ‘The young are fed on small caterpillars, grubs and termites. As soon as the males begin to assume their long tails in spring the flocks break up, and each male, accompanied by from ten to fifteen females, repairs to some suitable breeding place. As soon as they have fixed on a locality the females separate and each one proceeds to construct a nest in a thick tuft of grass. The cock meanwhile keeps a look-out from some point of vantage and spends most of his time in driving off other cocks who attempt to trespass on the territory occupied by his harem. He takes no part in the construction of any of the nests; should he see a man or beast of prey approaching he flies round with a warning cry, upon which the hens leave their nests, creep under the grass for a short distance, then rise and fly off until the danger is past. The nest is an oval, domed structure, with a side entrance, roughly woven out of fine grass lined with the flowering tops of grass and reeds. It is generally placed a few inches off the ground, in the centre of a tuft of grass, attached by its sides to many grass stalks, the blades and tops of which are bent down and tied together to form an additional con- cealment and protection. The female sits for fourteen days. The eggs, usually four in number, are small considering the 36 COLIUSPASSER PROGNE size of the bird; they are white or bluish white, closely marked with small spots and dashes of dark brown and slaty grey ; they average 0°9 X 0°67.” Mr. 'T. Ayres remarked that in Natal the males were in full plumage in December and January, and moult into the winter dress in March. According to Mr. H. Bowker, “the tail of the male in the breeding season is not an inconvenience to him; he never, in fact, seems to enjoy himself so much as during a high wind, in which he shows off to advantage, spreading his tail out like a fan.” Mr. Layard observes: “ Riding once between Table Farm and Grahamstown with Dr. Atherstone, I saw what I took to be a black silk neckerchief drifting down to us in a strong wind from a house on a hill some 300 yards from our road. I called the attention of my companion to it, when, with a laugh, he told me it was a male Kafir-fink. The deception was complete! As he came near I saw he was drifting at a prodigious rate; his wings flapping round and round like mill-sails, and his tail spread in a compact mass. He appeared quite capable of guiding himself, for he took care never to let me get within shot of him.” Mr. Distant, while at Pretoria, found that the birds had assumed their full plumage in November, and remarks: **Wherever wet places and high reeds are found, the long- tailed Widow-bird (Chera procne) may usually be observed pursuing its laborious and difficult flight, heavily handicapped by its seasonally developed tail, and is a good instance where sexual selection is exercised at the expense of protection.” Dr. Rendall writes : ‘This species is common on the flats round Barberton. ‘To the natives it is the ‘Sakubula,’ and the large black tail-feathers are used in bunches by the Swazi ‘Regiment of Infaans’ (or young men) to adorn their head- dresses and shields, with great effect. The natives run the birds down on wet days when the moisture prevents them from COLIUSPASSER DELAMEREI 37 rising after a flight or two, and they are killed with sticks and knobkerries.” Mr. Haagner remarks: ‘‘ This species is very common in the Transvaal, so far as can be judged from my experience in the Pretoria and Heidelberg districts. It is seen flying about the veldt everywhere, which is not the case with any other species of Weaver, so faras [am aware. ‘The nesting season commences in October and November. ‘The eggs are of a dirty erey-white ground-colour, indiscriminately dotted and blotched with light and purplish brown.” The nests he found were always in tufts of long herbage near the ground. The species apparently does not range further north in Hastern Africa than the Transvaal. Coliuspasser delamerei. Chera procne (non Bodd.) Sharpe, Ibis, 1891, p. 244 Masai; Jackson, Ibis, 1899, p. 597 Himateita L., Maw Ravine. Coliuspasser delamerei, Shelley, Bull. B. O. C. xiii. p. 73 (1903). Diatropura progne delamerei, Reichen. Vig. Afr. iii. p. 145 (1904). Similar in all its plumages to C. progne, but slightly larger, and dis- tinguished by the greater length of the tail in the males in full breeding plumage. “Iris brown ; bill pale horn blue; legs dark shrimp brown.” Total length 25:5 inches, culmen 0:7, wing 5:5, tail 21:0, tarsus 1:05. 3,17. 3.00. Mt. Kenya (Delamere). Delamere’s Great-tailed Whydah inhabits British Hast Africa to the east of Victoria Nyanza. The known range of this wonderful bird, which has a longer tail in proportion to its size than any other wild species is separated from that of its nearest ally, C. progne, by over 1,400 miles. This fact drew my attention to the probability of the bird from the Equator being distinct from the South African form, although it shows a great similarity in general appearance. I find, however, that it differs in the same manner as C. asyi- 38 COLIUSPASSER LATICAUDUS metrurus does from C. albonotatus, that is, in the length of the tail of the male in full breeding plumage. In this species it varies from 20 to 25 inches; the greatest length of tail I have met with in the South African C. progne is 18 inches, but in the specimen described by Stark (Faun. 8. Afr. B. 1. p. 189) it is recorded at 19°50. In the British Museum there are five of Lord Delamere’s specimens, comprising an adult male almost in winter plumage, but still retaining the elongated feathers of the tail, which are much worn and have faded into brown, also an adult female, likewise in worn plumage; both of these were obtained at Likipia on January 19. Two months later, at Ngari, he shot the full plumaged male I have described as the type and two hens in fresh plumage, so that probably the species has an autumn as wellasa spring nesting season. It is apparently not uncommon within its very limited range, for Mr. Jackson has procured many specimens; the first was at the Bogonoto River in Masailand, and during his journey to the coast, after leaving Doreta, he saw a few, mostly hens, in a swamp frequenting the high grass. He afterwards met with them in similar situations to the north of Lake Elmateita and to the east of the Mau Ravine, and the females were always more numerous than the males. Coliuspasser laticaudus. Fringilla laticauda, Licht. Verz. Doubl. p. 24 (1823) Nubia. Coliuspasser laticaudus, Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 219 (1896) ; Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 136 (1904). Penthetria laticauda, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 218 (1890) ; Grant, Ibis, 1904, p. 257 Harrar, Dedgen. Coliuspasser torquatus, Riipp. N. Wirb. Vég. p. 98, pl. 36, fig. 2 (1835- 40) Simien. - Male in breeding plumage. Jet black, including the under wing-coverts, with sandy buff edges to some of the feathers of the back, wings, tail and COLIUSPASSER LATICAUDUS 39 under tail-coverts ; hinder two-thirds of the crown, nape, a narrow band on sides of neck and broad collar across the lower throat scarlet; the red feathers fading to yellow or white towards their base, and those of the back of the crown and the nape have narrow black edges. ‘‘ Iris brown bill and legs black.” Total length 10:7 inches, culmen 0:55, wing 3-2, tail 7:2, tarsus 09. g, 29.11.99. Nyrobe (Delamere). Adult female. Upper parts, as well as the under wing-coverts, mottled brownish black with sandy brown edges to the feathers; a well-marked buff eyebrow; under parts pale sandy brown, fading into buff towards the chin and on the middle of the breast and abdomen; crop and sides of body partially streaked with brownish black. Ivis dark brown; bill and legs pale brown. Total length 6:0 inches, culmen 0:55, wing 3:1, tail 2-7, tarsus 0-9. 9, 21.2.99. Jawaha (Lovat). Male in winter plumage. Similar in colouring to the female; but differs in the wings and tail being blacker, the latter longer, and the under wing- coverts entirely black. ‘‘ Ivis, bill and legs dark brown.” 4g, 4. 1. 99. Chelunco (Lovat). The Red-naped Whydah ranges from the Kilimanjaro Mountain into Abyssinia. Fischer collected specimens at Komboko to the south-west of Kilimanjaro, in Arusha, at Susua and Lake Naiwasha, and on the mountains of Ukira, and he found a nest, containing three eggs, which was placed in a bush. ‘The eggs were strongly glossed, whitish, with reddish brown and violet grey spots, most numerous at the thick end, and measured 0°66 x 0-48. Mr. Oscar Neumann also procured specimens in the Taveita and Kikuyu countries. On the south-western slopes of the Kilimanjaro Mountain Mr. Jackson found them fairly plentiful in one place only, where, in May, they were apparently breeding, as they were also doing when he met with them in July on Mount Elgeyo at an elevation of 8,000 to 9,000 feet. He writes: ‘ Only seen in long reeds and bulrushes at the swampy end of the small lake on the top of Hlgeyo, evidently breeding. I also found them very plentiful in the long grass near Lake Nahuro. This bird has a curious habit of making a playground for itself. I noticed several in the long grass, and I saw the male 40 COLIUSPASSER ARDENS evidently playing, as it darted several times into the air to a height of about four feet, and then darted down again. Their ‘ playing-ground’ is a work of some time, as the grass is all worn away in an irregular circle, with the exception of a small tuft left in the centre with two or three little recesses at the base, which are evidently the result of the birds’ play.” On the Mau Plateau (8,700 feet) he procured a male in breeding plumage on August 3, and remarks: “ Plentiful in boggy hollows, where the grass is long. I saw this bird at its game of jumping up and down.” In Nandi, in April, he shot a male, female and young bird out of a large flock, and writes: “Still in flocks, consisting mostly of males in mottled plumage.” The species has not been recorded from Somaliland, but Lord Lovat shot three specimens at Chelunco, Baroma and Jawaha, within 150 miles west-south-west of Berbera. In Shoa Antinori collected a large series from April to September. Dr. Blanford met with the species on two occasions only in the highlands of Abyssinia near Antalo and Agula, and Heuglin found it in flocks with C. macrourus near Adowa and Aksum, in the marshy districts and the cultivated lands near the farms. The type of the species and the type of C. tor- quatus, Riipp., both came from the North Abyssinian district. Coliuspasser ardens. Fringilla ardens, Bodd. Tabl. Pl. Enl. p. 39 (1783) Cape Colony. Coliuspasser ardens, Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 318 (1896); Reichen. Vég. Afr. iii. p. 135 (1904) ; Shortridge, Ibis, 1904, p. 178 Pondoland. Penthetria ardens, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 215 (1890). Emberiza signata, Scop. Del. Faun. et Flor. Insubr. ii. p. 95 (1786). Emberiza panayensis, Gm. S. N. ii. p. 885 (1788). Vidua lenocinia, Less. Traité, p. 487 (1831) Cape Colony. Vidua rubritorques, Swains. B. W. Afr. i. p. 174 (1837). Vidua torquata, Less. Compl. Buff. viii. p. 278 (1837) Cape. Penthetria auricollis, Licht. Nomenel. p. 49 (1854). COLIUSPASSER ARDENS 41 Male in breeding plumage. Black, with a broad scarlet collar across the base of the throat, the feathers of which pass into yellow and white at their bases. ‘‘ Bill, tarsi and feet black; iris brown.’ Total length 12 inches, culmen 0:6, wing 38, tail 9, tarsus 0°85. ¢, 15. 3. 70. Alice, Cape Colony (Layard). Adult female. Above mottled, blackish brown with broad pale brown edges to the feathers; a well-marked yellowish white eyebrow and a patch of the same colour beneath the eye; a loral band and a band behind the eye black ; ear-coverts buffish brown ; under parts buff, with a slight yellow tinge on the chin and upper throat; lower throat, like the front and sides of the chest, washed with tawny brown, and marked with some slightly darker shaft-stripes; inner lining of the wings dusky ash, slightly paler on the coverts. ‘Iris brown; bill, tarsi and feet pale brown” (Stark). Total length 4:6 inches, culmen 0:55, wing 2°6, tail 1:8, tarsus 0°75. Pinetown (T. L. Ayres). Adult male in winter plumage. Similar to the female in the form of the tail and the general plumage; but the dark centres to the feathers of the upper parts blacker, the inner lining of the wing entirely black, and the under tail-coverts having black centres. ‘Iris dusky brown ; bill light horn colour, upper mandible darker; tarsi reddish brown; feet dusky.” $,8. 7.78. Rustenburg (W. Lucas). The Red-collared Whydah inhabits the eastern half of Africa south of the Equator and ranges into Angola. The type of Vidua rubritorques belongs to this species, and was probably a South African bird, and not captured in Sene- gambia, from whence Swainson nominally received it, for all the representative specimens I know of from West Africa, from the Congo northward, belong to C. concolor. Dr. Cabanis re- marks that in Major von Mechow’s collection, there were three specimens of C. concolor and one of C. ardens. The latter and a specimen presented to me by the late Mr. I’. T. Thomson, from Loando, are the only examples known to me of this species from any part of the West African subregion, or any place in Africa to the west of 24° EH. long. There- fore, I consider (. concolor to be specifically distinct from C. ardens. In Dr. Sharpe’s edition of Layard’s ‘ Birds of South Africa ”’ 42 COLIUSPASSER ARDENS occur the following notes: “This is a bird of the eastern portion of South Africa; Mr. Rickard has found them at East London, and we fell in with them at Alice and on the Blink- water. Captain Trevelyan says that it is common near King- williamstown. Mr. T. C. Atmore sent several specimens from Eland’s Post, where it was common”? and, ‘‘ Captain Harford’s informs us that in Natal they fly in flocks, five or six- males with about fifty females. This we also observed when we fell in with them in the swampy grass-lands and fields of Kaffir- corn at Alice. The females usually hid themselves in the sea of herbage, diving to the bottom in a moment, while the males, after occasionally doing battle with each other, or hovering with the peculiar jerking, flapping motion common to this genus, over some of the females concealed in the grass, would betake themselves to some elevated head of corn or rush, and thence survey the field.” According to Stark, in winter they assemble in flocks and mix with other Weaver-birds. ‘‘The nests are domed, with a small entrance at the side; carefully woven of fine grass in the centre of a thick tuft of grass, many of the grass-stems being built into the walls of the nest, while others are plaited so as to form an arched bower over it.” In Northern Natal, Major Clarke found them in small flocks frequenting the reeds which grow along the banks of rivers. The habits of all the members of this genus are very much alike. The type of the species and the type of Vidua torquata were red-collared specimens from South Africa, from whence also came the types of Vidua lenocinia and Penthetria auricollis, which had yellow collars. This variation in the colour of the collar is probably due to the constitution of the individual bird, and similar changes from red to yellow on certain parts of the plumage are by no means confined to this species or genus, COLIUSPASSER ARDENS 45 Messrs Butler, Feilden and Reid write from Natal: ‘ Gener- ally distributed and fairly common. Some specimens of the male were obtained near Newcastle in November, with the collar orange rather than scarlet, but this is doubtless only an intermediate stage.” In Zululand the Messrs. Woodward found flocks of the species in the “ Mealie-gardens,”’ and met with a nest “in a clump of tall grass, fastened to the stalks; it was a small domed structure, composed of fine grass, and contained little white speckled eggs.” In the Transvaal and Matabeleland the species is somewhat local but fairly common, according to Stark. Mr. Barratt shot specimens at Potchefstroom, Rustenberg and near Pretoria, and Mr. T’, Ayres observed it in the Lydenburg district. In Mashonaland, Mr. Guy Marshall found the species only in large reedy swamps, where, however, it is fairly plentiful, though very wary, and writes: ‘‘ The male, when showing off, expands the feathers of his curiously constructed tail vertically, so as to make it appear as deep as possible. Along the Upper Zambesi Mr. Boyd Alexander procured a_ specimen at Zumba, and Capello and Ivens met with it at Caponda in about 15° 8S. lat. Sir John Kirk found the species tolerably common in the Shiré Valley, near Chibisa, and specimens have been collected in Nyasaland at Zomba, Mlosa, Milanji and Mpimbi. Béhm obtained the species at Karema, Mauh and Qua-Mpara; Sir John Kirk at Mamboio and in Ugogo ; Emin at Mandera in Neuru; Neumann at Pangani; Ansore in Unyoro; Jackson from Mararu in Teita and from Ntebbi in Uganda. On the western side of Victoria Nyanza Dr. Reichenow records it from the island of Uhambiri and from Bukoba, and I cannot trace the range of this species further north or west in this direction, for in the Upper White Nile district towards Lado it appears to be entirely replaced by the West African C. concolor. 44 COLIUSPASSER CONCOLOR Coliuspasser concolor. Vidua concolor, Cass. Proc. Philad. Acad. 1848, p. 66; id. Journ. Philad. Acad. 1849, p. 241, pl. 30, fig. 1. Coliuspasser concolor, Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 184 (1904). Similar to C. ardens and differing only in the full plumaged males being entirely black. Total length 10-2 inches, culmen 0:55, wing 2:8, tail 7-2, tarsus 0°85. ¢, Uganda (Jackson). Cassin’s Black Whydah ranges from Senegambia into Angola and Central Africa. Hartlaub in 1861 mentions a specimen from the Gambia in Verreaux’s collection, which is the most northern range known to me for this species. The type was discovered by Afzelius at Sierra Leone, and in Liberia, along the Sulymah River, Demery collected ten specimens. I find no mention of the species from our British possessions of the Gold Coast and Nigeria; but four specimens have been recorded from Togoland and one from Camaroons. In Central Equatorial Africa the species has been pro- cured by Emin at Meswa; by Dr. Ansorge at Masindi in Unyoro, and by Mr. Jackson in Uganda, on the second and fourth days’ march after leaving Kampala for Mount Ruwenzori. One of these latter specimens shows a few red feathers on the throat and may be a hybrid between this species and C. ardens, and resembles a specimen obtained by Dr. Fiilleborn at Tandalla. On the Congo River, Bohndorff procured the species at Manyanga, and in Angola specimens have been collected by Furtado d’Antas and by Major von Mechow, but it is apparently replaced by, or meets with, C. ardens in the southern portion COLIUSPASSER EQUES 45 of that country, for one out of the four specimens procured by von Mechow, and Shiitts’s specimen from Malanga, belong to ©. ardens, as well as one in the British Museum from Loando. Coliuspasser eques. Vidua eques, Hartl. P. Z. S. 1863, p. 106, pl. 15 Tabora. Coliuspasser eques, Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 323 (1896); Reichen. Vog. Afr, iii, p. 141 (1904). Penthetria eques, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 220 (1890). Adult male. Uniform jet black, excepting the wings ; lesser wing-coverts chestnut, passing into yellow along the edge of the bend of the wing towards the pinion; median coverts with buffy-brown edges; most of the greater coverts with a considerable portion white, decreasing in extent towards the seapulars, which are uniform black; quills with their basal portion white like the under coverts, the latter slightly tinted with rufous buff; remaining portion of the quills uniform black, or with a few narrow white or buff outer edges to the secondaries. ‘Iris brown; bill pale slaty blue; legs black.” Total length 6:4 inches, culmen 0°55, wing 2:9, tail 3, tarsus 0:8.” g,8. 3.00. Munisu (Delamere). Adult female. Upper parts mottled, brownish black with broad pale brown edges to the feathers; no white on the wing, which is blackish brown with pale brown edges to the feathers, and the lesser coverts mostly chestnut; under wing-coverts sandy buff, rather darker along the bend of the wing; a broad eyebrow and the under parts generally brownish buff, inclining to white towards the chin and centre of breast. Iris, bill and legs brown. 92, 2, 5.96. Machako’s (Hinde). Immature. Like the female. g,15.2.01. Roquecha (Pease). Male in winter plumage. Similar to the female in colouring of head, neck and body ; lesser wing-coverts brighter chestnut ; and the same amount of white on the wings as in their breeding plumage; dark parts of primaries jet black. g, 24.2.00. Walamo (Pease). Speke’s White-winged Whydah inhabits Hast Africa between 7° S. lat. and 10° N., and eastward of 30° H. long. The type was discovered by Speke at Kazeh, better known as T'aboro in the Unyamwesi country. In this district Bohm met with it at Kakoma in February and March, in small 46 COLIUSPASSER ALBONOTATUS parties consisting of a male accompanied by several females. He also found the males in full plumage at the Ifume River in December. It has been met with by Emin at Mrogoro in Ugogo, and by Fischer at Maurui on the Pangani and at Speke’s Gulf. Mr. Jackson procured specimens in the Kilimanjaro district near T'aveta, at Kikumbuliu and Ulu in Ukamba, and at Ndera in the Teita country. ‘These Marsh Whydahs are very partial to long grass in swampy districts, and he mentions them as exceedingly common among the cane-like grass on the banks of the river at Nzoi. At Machako’s Dr. Sydney Hinde found them very abundant, usually frequenting the reed-beds; but almost every native village was frequented by at least one pair. Dr. Ansorge has collected specimens as far west as the Holulu River, in which district Mr. Oscar Neumann procured a Specimen at Kwa Mtesse in the Singo Province at the north- west corner of Victoria Nyanza, and others during his journey in the Ulu Mountains and at Kwo Kitoto in Kavirondo. In the Kenia district Lord Delamere found the species already in full plumage by the beginning of February; but the specimens procured by Mr. Harrison at Walamo, near Lake Rudolf, in February, and those met with by Mr. Pease at Roquecha in that month, and at Harrar in November, were in the brown winter plumage. The breeding season varies with the climate, the object probably being to secure an adequate supply of the food best suited to the young birds. Coliuspasser albonotatus. Vidua albonotata, Cass. Proc. Philad. Acad. 1848, p. 65 Natal. Coliuspasser albonotatus, Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 321 (1896); Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 140 (1904). Penthetria albonotata, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 219 (1890 pt.) Natal, Transvaal, Shiré R. COLIUSPASSER ALBONOTATUS 47 Adult male. Uniform jet black excepting the wings ; lesser wing-coverts and edges of bend of wing bright pale yellow; median coverts with buffy brown edges; most of the greater coverts with a considerable portion white, decreasing in extent towards the scapulars, which are uniform black ; quills with the basal portion white like the under-coverts ; the latter slightly tinted with rufous buff; remainder of quills uniform black or with a few narrow pale outer edges to the secondaries. ‘‘ Iris hazel; bill pale bluish violet ; legs black” (F. Oates). Total length 7 inches, culmen 0:5, wing 2:9, tail 3:4, tarsus 0°8. ¢g, 20.12.77. Weenen (W. Arnold). Adult female. Upper parts mottled, brownish black with broad pale brown edges to the feathers, no white on the wing, which is blackish brown with pale brown edges to the feathers, and the lesser coverts mostly yellow ; under wing-coverts sandy buff, rather darker along the bend of the wing; a broad eyebrow and the under parts generally brownish buff, inclining to white towards the chin and centre of the breast. Iris, bill and legs brown. Adult male in winter plumage. Very similar to the female, but the lesser wing-coverts brighter yellow, and with the same amount of white on the wing as in their breeding plumage ; dark parts of the primaries black. g,July. Durban (1. L. Ayres). The Natal White-winged Whydah ranges from Natal into Ugogo. The type of the species came from Natal, which is the most western range known for the species. According to Stark, “This very beautiful and rare Widow-bird appears to have much the habits of the Urobrachya avillaris. It frequents marshy ground on the borders of rivers, where in summer the male sits on the summit of a tall stem of grass or reed and shows off his glossy black plumage and yellow shoulder-knot, frequently puffing out the neck feathers into a sort of ruff, like the Bishop-bird, while opening and shutting his wings, or occasionally taking a short flight and hovering, like a Vidua, with upraised wings, over the grass, where doubtless one of his brown wives is concealed.” In the British Museum there are specimens from Umbilo near Durban, Weenen, the Ivuna River in Zululand, one of Wahlberg’s from the Transvaal, another of Barratt’s from the Winterberg district, one of 48 COLIUSPASSER ALBONOTATUS Bradshaw’s from the Makalaka Country, and several of Frank Oates’s from the southern tributaries of the Zambesi. At Zumbo on the Zambesi, on November 7, Captain Alexander met with ‘‘a small flock, consisting entirely of male birds in full winter plumage. They frequented a stony, bush-grown locality near the village, and hardly a day passed without our finding them in the same spot. It is a remarkable- looking Weaver, the bar of white on the wings as it takes to flight at once attracts attention. Beyond Zumbo, on Decem- ber 24, we observed for the first time a small party of males in full breeding dress. At first it was hard to realise that they belonged to the same species as those we had seen at Zumbo. For one thing, their habits seemed to have altogether changed, as instead of pottering about among bushes and getting up almost at one’s feet, they resorted to the extensive marshy reed-beds, and were as wild as Hawks, travelling with a strong flight and as straight as a die for a considerable distance before alighting upon the next group of reed-heads. Their presence in this black velvety plumage came to us all the more as a surprise, since from the time of leaving Zumbo we never came across any individuals in the transitional stage.” During the Livingstone Expedition Sir John Kirk saw the species in a marsh by the Zambesi and brought home a specimen from the Shiré River. In this latter district, towards Lake Nyasa, specimens have been procured by Mr. Alexander Whyte at Mpimbe and Zomba, and by Sir Alfred Sharpe at Dedza in Angoniland; further north, specimens have been collected by Bohm at Katapana, to the west of Lake Moero, by Fischer at Lindi on the coast, and by Kmin in the Ugogo country. The egg is described by Mr. Nehrkorn as of a deep blue, with dull red and violet spots clustered towards the thick end, and measuring 0°8 x 0°58. COLIUSPASSER ASYMMETRURUS 49 Coliuspasser asymmetrurus. Penthetria asymmetrura, Reichen. J. f. O. 1892, p. 126 Loango, Congo, Angola. Coliuspasser asymmetrurus, Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 322 (1896); Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 141 (1904). Penthetria albonotata, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 219 (1890, pt. W. Afr.). Similar in colouring to C. albonotatus in all its stages; but the male in breeding plumage is readily distinguishable by its much, longer tail, which varies from 4°5 to 5:5 inches. The Angola White-winged Whydah is confined to West Africa, where it ranges from Gaboon to the Cunene River. In the British Museum there are two specimens in winter plumage, from Gaboon, of Du Chaillu’s collecting; three males, two in full breeding dress, obtained by Petit at Landana in January, 1876; an adult male from Cambambe in Angola, where Mr. Monteiro found the species not uncommon in the high grass; there are also three full plumaged males from Loanda and the Quanza River. In Benguela Anchieta has collected specimens at Quis- sange, Catumbella and Caconda, where, according to his notes, it is known to the natives as the “ Dunquequilele.” It has also been met with in the upper Cunene district by Van der Kellen. This bird, like C. delamerei, can be recognised easily by the greater length of the tail in adult males in full breeding plumage. Coliuspasser macrourus. Loxia macroura, Gm. §. N. ii. p. 845 (1788). Coliuspasser macrourus, Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 324 (1896) ; Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 188 (1904). Penthetriopsis macrura, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 220 (1900); Butler, Foreign Finches in Captivity, p. 292, pl. 52 (1894). (October, 1904, 4 50 COLLUSPASSER MACROURUS Fringilla flavoptera, Vieill. Ois. Chant. p. 69, pl. 41 (1805). Fringilla chrysoptera, Vieill. Enc. Méth. iii. p. 964 (1823). Vidua chrysonotus, Swains. B. W. Afr. i. p. 178 (1887). Male in breeding plumage. Velvety black, with the mantle, lesser wing- coverts, edges of pinion and bend of the wing bright canary-yellow; some incomplete brownish buff margins to many of the wing-feathers; under wing-coverts sandy buff. ‘Iris brown; bill bluish black, with the cutting edges and tip of the lower mandible buff; tarsi and feet dark brown.” Total length 7-6 inches, culmen 0:55, wing 3-2, tail 4, tarsus 0-99. 3, 26.5.01. Pong (Boyd Alexander). Adult female. Upper parts mottled dark brown, with broad pale edges to the feathers, very slightly shaded with yellow on the lesser wing-coverts ; under surface of wings brown, with pale edges to the coverts and inner webs of the quills; a pale buff eyebrow; sides of head light brown, less mottled than the crown; under parts buff, slightly shaded with brown on the crop and flanks. ‘Iris brown; upper mandible horny brown; lower mandible and legs paler.” Total length 5:3 inches, wing 2°6, tail 2-1, tarsus 0°8. 2? , Lokoja (Forbes). Immature male. Similar in plumage to the female. ¢g , Shonga, (Forbes). Adult male in winter plumage. Very similar to the female, but differs in the wings being blacker and the lesser coverts bright yellow. 3, 9. 2. 72. Accra (Shelley). The Yellow-mantled Whydah ranges southward from Sene- gambia, the Niam-Niam country, Uganda and the mouth of the Tana River to Angola and the Zambesi River. Many naturalists have collected specimens at the Gambia, but according to Dr. Rendall the species is not common there. Verreaux obtained it from Casamanse, Beaudouin from Bissao. In the Bissagos Islands Fea has collected a large series on Bulama. At Sierra Leone it has been met with by Dr. Clarke, Demery found it at the Sulemah River, Mr. Biittikofer calls - it tolerably common in Liberia, and Fraser obtained it at Cape Palmas. It is, in fact, common throughout its range in West Africa to as far south as Angola, frequenting the marshes. In February and March, when I was on the Gold Coast, they were all in the brown winter dress, but as the rainy season sets in the males assume their black plumage, COLIUSPASSER MACROURUS 51 which here lasts from May to September. In May Mr. Boyd Alexander found many in the full breeding plumage, and others still in the brown dress. He met with them inland to as far as Binduri near Gambaga. In the Niger district Mr. Hartert found them in June and July at Loko, in full plumage, assembling in large flocks with other Finches in the rice and cornfields. | Bohndorff procured the species in the Niam-Niam country, Dr. Reichenow and Mr. Sjéstedt in Camaroons, Du Chaillu and Marche in Gaboon, Falkenstein and Petit on the Loango Coast, Sperling, Jameson and Bohndorff on the Lower Congo, and Storms during his Tanganyika expedition. In the British Museum there is one of Mr. Monteiro’s specimens from Angola, and in the Lisbon Museum one procured by Welwitsch at Galungo-Alto. The species has not been recorded from further south in Western Africa, but ranges southward to the Zambesi; here Mr. Boyd Alexander shot a hen bird in January, 1899, at Zumbo (31° HK. long.). Along the Shiré Valley Sir John Kirk saw large numbers of them on the wide grass-plains, flying from one grass-head to another, always selecting the highest; know- ing this, the natives catch them by setting a noose on any grass- head rising above the others. ‘‘ The breeding plumage,’’ he remarks, “was assumed in December and lasted throughout the wet season. The nest was made of grass, woven among the stalks. In this district Sir Alfred Sharpe procured the species on Dedja, a mountain in Central Angoniland, on the Portuguese frontier, at an altitude of 7,000 feet. In German East Africa specimens have been collected by Bohm at Ifume and near the Lukumbi River, by Fischer on the southern banks of the Victoria Nyanza, at Speke’s Gulf, and he also procured a specimen near Port Melinda, which is the most eastern range known for the species. Between this place and Uganda I do not find it recorded; but in the latter 52 COLIUSPASSER MACROCERCUS country it has been met with by Dr. Ansorge, and as Bohndorff found it in the Niam-Niam country it probably inhabits the whole of the Central African Lake region. The eggs are pale green, or greenish grey spotted with grey, and measure 0°8 X 0°55. Coliuspasser macrocercus. Fringilla macrocerea, Licht. Verz. Doubl., p. 24 (1823) Nubza. Coliuspasser macrocercus, Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 325 (1896); Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 137 (1904). Penthetriopsis macrocerca, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 223 (1890). Coliuspasser flaviscapulatus, Riipp. N. Wirb. Vog. p. 98 (1835-40) Abyssinia. Male in breeding plumage. Black, with the lesser wing-coverts canary- yellow; some pale brown or whitish edges to many of the other wing- feathers ; end portion of the primaries dusky ; under wing-coverts buff, with the edge of the bend of the wing bright yellow. ‘“ Iris dark steel blue ; bill, upper mandible black, lower one brownish grey; feet dark grey.” Total length 9 inches, culmen 0°65, wing 3°5, tail 5-0, tarsus 0-95. 3, 11. 7. 02. S. Abyssinia (Degen). It closely resembles C. macrowrus in all its other plumages. Adult female. Wing 3:3, tail 2-4. Male in winter. Upper mandible reddish brown, lower one lighter ; legs brown. Lichenstein’s Yellow-shouldered Whydah inhabits the Abyssinian district. The most southern range known to me for this species is Baroma (9° N. lat.); here Lord Lovat met with it associating with QO. laticaudus in flocks. Heuglin found it common in Tigré and near Adowa in large flocks, at elevations between 4,000 and 7,000 feet, and also saw it in the country surrounding Gondar, where Riippell procured the type of C. flaviscapulatus. He records their flight as not powerful, the note as a melan- choly pipe, and remarks that “ when alarmed ”’ they hide among pea. THE BIRDS OF AFRICA.PL.XXIZ. |.Pyromelana ladoensis. 2.Coluspasser soror. COLIUSPASSER SOROR 53 the reeds which grow abundantly in the marshy districts they naturally frequent. Coliuspasser soror. (PI. 29, fig. 2.) Penthetria soror, Reichen. J. f. O. 1887, p. 70 Kawanga. Coliuspasser soror, Shelley, B. Afr. 1. No. 326 (1896); Reichen. Vog. Afr, iii. p. 138 (1904). Penthetriopsis soror, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 223 (1890). Male in breeding plumage. Black with the lesser wing-coverts lemon yellow. ‘Iris brown; bill with the upper mandible black and the lower one horny blue with a black base.” Total length 7:6 inches, culmen 0:55, wing 3°2, tail 4:0, tarsus 0°9. ¢g, 24.6. 90. Kavirondo (Jackson). Female, inmature male and adult male in winter plumage. Similar to those of C. macrowrus. Bill, upper mandible pale olive brown, lower one whitish horn colour; feet pale fleshy brown with a bluish shade. Reichenow’s Yellow-shouldered Whydah inhabits the coun- try to the east of the northern half of Victoria Nyanza. This is a small Equatorial representative of C. macrocercus, inhabiting the Kavirondo district. The type was procured at Kawanga by Fischer. In the Kavirondo country Mr. Jackson procured a male in February which had begun moulting, another in March almost in complete breeding plumage, two in May and June in the full black plumage, and one at Busoga in November which was commencing the autumn moult. He found them very plentiful in the Kakasuega district along the cart-road to Manicus, but it was not seen by him in the Nandi country. Coliuspasser psammocromius. Penthetria psammocromius, Reichen. Orn. Monatsb. 1900, p.39 Tandala. Coliuspasser psammocromius, Reichen. Vég. Afr. ii. p. 143, pl. , fig. 1, (1904). Adult male Uniform glossy jet black, with the exception of the wings; lesser wing-coverts bright lemon yellow ; median-coverts and entire outer 54 COLIUSPASSER HARTLAUBI webs of the greater coverts pale sandy buff and with edges of the same colour on the secondaries; under wing-coverts pale sandy buff, with black inner webs to some of the feathers, and a few next to the primaries entirely black like the remainder of the wings. Total length 10:2 inches, culmen 0:65, wing 4:1, tail 6:0, tarsus 1-1. g, 9.02. Livingstonia (McClounie). Adult female. Very similar to that of C. macrocercus, with the same amount of yellow edges on the lesser wing-coverts ; but differs in having a large portion of the under wing-coverts black. From C. progne it differs in the black of the under wing-coverts not extending to the bend of the wing, and in the second primary reaching nearly to the end of the wing. Total length 6:4 inches, culmen 0:65, wing 3:6, tail 2-6, tarsus 1:05. ¢?, 9. 02. Livingstonia (McClounie). Male in winter plumage. Head, neck, body and tail as in the female; and the wings as in the full plumaged male. 9. 02. Livingstonia (McClounie). Fulleborn’s Marsh Whydah inhabits the Lake Nyasa district. The type, a male in full plumage, was discovered by Dr. Fulleborn at Tandala in about 9°S. lat. 34° EK. long. There are now in the British Museum the three specimens I have described; these were collected by Mr. McClounie in Living- stonia to the south of Lake Nyasa. One of the characters of the species is that the tail-feathers are peculiarly narrow, being scarcely half so broad as in C. hartlaubt. Coliuspasser hartlaubi. Penthetria hartlaubi, Bocage, Jorn. Lisboa, 1879, p. 259 Caconda ; Cab. J. f. O. 1888, p. 218 Wakala; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 219 (1890). Coliuspasser hartlaubi, Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 320 (1896) ; Reichen. Vég. Afr. iii. p. 142 (1904). Penthetriopsis humeralis, Sharpe, Bull. B. O. C. xi. p. 59 (1901) Nandi. Coliuspasser hartlaubi humeralis, Reichen. Vég. Afr. iii. p. 143 (1904). Male in breeding plumage. Uniform black with the lesser wing-coverts orange yellow; median coverts, edges of the greater coverts and a broad under margin to the bend of the wing rufous buff. Iris brown; bill grey Total length 10-8 inches, culmen 0:75, wing 4:05, tail 6:0, tarsus 1:1. g, 5.93. Galungo (Anchieta). Ss COLIUSPASSER JACKSONI 55 Hartlaub’s Marsh Whydah ranges from Benguela into the Upper White Nile district eastward to Nandi on the Equator, and Kondiland, about 10° S. lat. Anchieta discovered the type at Caconda, where it was known as the “ Quindembere.” He has since obtained a speci- men at Galungo on the Bengo River in Angola, where its ’ native name is ‘* Xituco,”’ and it feeds on seeds. In the ad- joining Machinge country Sesinando Marques procured another specimen, which he informs us was known to the natives as the “‘ Bimba.” To the eastward it has been obtained by Dr. Fullebourn in Kondiland. In Equatorial Africa, Emin procured a specimen at Wakala, the type of Penthetria hartlaubi, Cab., 1883; Dr. Stuhlmann one at Mengo, and it is known to me by the type of Penthe- triopsis humeralis, which, according to the label, was shot at Nandi, and not on Mount Elgon, as recorded in the original description. On comparing this specimen with the one I have described from Galungo, it differs only in the tail measuring 4°5 inches, and I cannot admit it to be distinct from C. hartlaubi (Bocage). Coliuspasser jacksoni. Drepanoplectes jacksoni, Sharpe, Ibis, 1891, p. 246, pl. 5 Masailand, Kikuyu; Reichen. Vég. Afr. iii. p. 143 (1904). Coliipasser jacksoni, Shelley B. Afr. I. No. 327 (1896). Male in breeding plumage. Head, neck, body and tail entirely black ; wings dark brown with pale edges to the feathers, broadest towards the lesser wing-coverts, the least series of which are almost or entirely pale fawn- colour of the same shade as the under wing-coyverts. ‘‘ Iris brown; bill with the base and lower mandible black, remainder of upper mandible pale green.” Total length 13 inches, culmen 0°75, wing 3:5, tail 8°8, tarsus 1-1. 3, 26.9.99. Mt. Settima (H. J. Makinder). Female. Similar in general plumage to that of C. macrowrus ; but differs in the sandy shade of the least wing-coverts, the nearly uniform pale fawn 56 COLIUSPASSER JACKSONI colour of the under wing-coverts, and the dark stripes on the crop and sides of body. ‘‘Iris brown; bill, tarsi and feet pinkish brown.” Wing 3:2, tail 2:1. Nairobe (Mackinder). Immature male. Very similar to the adult female, but with the crop and flanks more striped. Adult male in winter. Similar to the immature bird, but distinguished by having the least series of wing-coverts pale fawn colour. Jackson's Whydah inhabits British Hast Africa to the east of Victoria Nyanza between 3° 8. lat. and 1° N. lat. Mr. Jackson procured the types, a male and female, July 22, 1890, out of flocks frequenting the high grass in Masailand, and they were then in full breeding plumage. In October of the previous year he shot a male in the mottled brown plumage in the Kikuyu country. He next mentions the species as very plentiful in large flocks at Lake Elmateita in April, 1896, also in the Nandi district at an elevation of 6,000 feet, June 2, 1898, and writes: ‘* Now commencing to breed. I found the nests, but only one contained a single egg. The nest is rather a flimsy structure, made of fine dry grass and lined with the seed-heads of fine grass, with an entrance at the side, like the nest of a Willow-Wren. It is placed on the edge of swampy places, but not on the coarse herbage of the swamps, within an inch or two of the ground. The birds bend down the surrounding blades of grass and weave them into the top of the nest, which makes the latter not only more difficult to detect, but also renders it more waterproof. Like Penthe- tria laticauda, the cock-birds make playgrounds for themselves, on which they dance up and down on and off throughout the day, but more vigorously in the early mornings and late even- ings. Yesterday evening I watched several within a radius of 100 yards; and a truly ridiculous sight it was to see these pitch-black, curious-shaped objects, bobbing up and down out of the grass. From an ant-heap close by I watched —~ COLIUSPASSER JACKSONI 57 for a long time four cock-birds within forty yards of me; and, as the sun was within half an hour of setting and shining brightly at my back, I had a first-rate opportunity of noticing how they assumed their curious attitude, and succeeded in making a fairly accurate drawing of them. The actual position is as follows: The head is thrown back like that of a proud Turkey-cock, the beak being held horizontally. The feet hang downwards; the tail is held straight up till it touches the ruff at the base of the head and neck, the ends of the feathers falling in a curve downward, with the exception of two tail-feathers which are held outward and downward. While actually rising in the air the half-open wings are worked with a very quick shivering motion, and the feet are also moved up and down very rapidly. The bird springs straight up in the air, sometimes for a few inches and some- times to the height of two feet, and then drops. The whole of the plumage is much puffed out throughout the perform- ance, which is repeated five or six times, with a short interval for rest. The game would appear to be somewhat fatiguing, as the bird rarely makes more than five or six jumps at a time without a short rest. Only on one occasion was a female present on the playground. They very often assume their curious jumping attitude some little distance before they arrive at their playground. At night they roost in the tall reeds and rushes in the swampy hollows.” While at Machako’s Dr. Sydney Hinde remarked: “ The males of this species frequently form a playground in the long grass on the plains. The playground made by each bird is circular, about two feet in diameter; the grass is beaten quite flat inside the ring, except one tuft in the very centre. A flock of these birds playing has a curious effect, as they Jump about three feet in the air and drop down again into the circle, each bird jumping from five to ten times in a minute.” I may 58 COLIUSPASSER JACKSONI here add his brief but interesting description of this district : * Machako’s Station, on the Uganda road, is situated at the edge of a grassy plain, which stretches for some miles to the westward. The only wood in the neighbourhood consists of single thorn-trees, scattered about at distances of 200 yards. The nearest forest is at Kikuyu, about forty-five miles away. On the east side of the station is a valley, at the bottom of which is a stream about two feet wide and three inches deep. The whole valley is cultivated, and a few patches of rank grass grow in the bed of the stream. On its eastern side the mountains rise abruptly, and some of them are 2,000 feet higher than the station, which is 5,300 feet above the sea- level.” Dr. Ansorge found the species at Nairobe, and during the Makinder Expedition to Mount Kenia it was met with in flocks of thirty or forty together, and appeared to be common along the western foot of the Mount Settima range. Sir Harry Johnston obtained the species at Lake Baringo, which is the most northern range yet recorded for these Weaver-birds. In the British Museum there are many specimens collected by Lord Delamere, comprising males in winter plumage from Kikuyu in December, and from Lake Nakuro and Molo River in the early part of January, and full plumaged males in Likipia, January 21. Also several at Ngari Mosser and Elbedjeda on Mount Kenia. Specimens were procured in the breeding plumage by the Makinder Expedition, September 26, and in the winter plumage by Dr. Hinde at M’Gongo, Octo- ber 20. This shows that the spring and autumn moults take place about January and October. UROBRACHYA 59 Genus IV. UROBRACHYA. Most nearly allied to Coliwspasser, but the tail is always rounded and shorter than the wing. Bill brown or hoary grey. Adult males have the lesser wing-coyerts scarlet, orange, or golden yellow; under wing-coverts and a portion of the upper wing-coverts rufous ; during the breeding season the entire head, neck, body and tail are uniform velvety black, with a ruff of broad elongated feathers surrounding the sides and back of the neck. In winter the adult males assume a mottled brown plumage very similar to that of the females and young birds, but they may be readily distinguished by the bright colouring of the lesser wing-coverts, which is retained through- out the year. Tarsi and feet moderate; claws slender and much curved. Type. Urobrachya, Bp. Consp. i. p. 447 (1850) . . . . U. axillaris. The genus is confined to Tropical and South Africa. I have given in my key the distinguishing character of nine named forms, but of these U. affinis is probably a cage variety of U. awillaris. U. hildebrandti I cannot look upon as more than a variety of U. zanzibarica, and the types of U. media are in apparently the young male plumage of U. phanicea. U. zanzibarica, the large-billed form of the red-shouldered group, is con- fined to Eastern Africa and graduates almost imperceptibly into U. axillaris towards 10° §. lat., and into U. phenicea about 1° S. lat. U. mechowt, more recently named U. uganda, is the large-billed representative of the orange- shouldered group of which U. traversii is the northern form. U. bocagei, with its golden yellow lesser wing-coverts, is very distinguishable by the pale basal portion of the primaries showing well in front of the under wing-coverts. KEY TO THE SPECIES. a. No pale base to primaries showing beyond the under wing-coverts. at, Smaller, wing not more than 3°56 inches; rufous portion of wings darker. a?, Black ends to primary-coverts deeper than broad ; greater wing-coverts more black than rufous. a’, Pale portion of wing more cinnamon 60 UROBRACHYA AXILLARIS rufous, with the least Coe scarlet. . . axillaris. | b%. Pale portion of he more phocolas: rufous, with the least wing-coverts yell? 6 5 < aginis. pf. ¢o b?. Black ends to paiaaey corti smaller; least wing-coverts scarlet. Gs sexi ieee a*. Greater wing-coverts more rufous than black . . . . zanzibarica. | b+. Greater wing-coverts more ‘black than rufous) 2 2. 4 aldebrandin. uel d*. Bill smaller. c*. Winter plumage: head, neck and body whiter . . ... . . . pheniceaad. fp. 6, d*, Winter plumage: head, neck, and body more rufous . . media. | b1. Larger, wing not less than 3:5 nulaiee in adults ; rufous portion of wing paler sandy cinnamon ; least wing-coverts orange. c®, Bill and wings danger wing 3°7 to 3:9 WONG 5 5 o © mechowi. | ¢% d?. Bill and wings suailees Hie 3: 5 to Be 7 made G 6 o ¢ . traversit. | b. With pale bases to primaries showin perond the under wing-coverts ; lesser wing-coverts ryolckyawallony o 5 5 « 5 6 8 5 8 o, 6 (aolAene(es, p70. Urobrachya axillaris. var. U. affinis. (PI. 30, fig. 2.) Vidua axillaris, Smith, Ill. Zool. S. Afr. Aves. pl. 17 (1838) Kez A. Urobrachya axillaris, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 224 (1890) Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 328 (1896) ; Shortridge, Ibis, 1904, p. 178 Pondoland ; Reichen. Vég. Afr. iii. p. 129 (1904). Urobrachya affinis, Cab. Orn. Centrabl. 1881, p. 183 Hab. (?) ; id. J. f. O. 1882, p. 122. Male in breeding plumage. Black, with the exception of the following portions of the wing: lesser-coverts crimson-shaded scarlet, inclining to yellow on the base of the feathers; median-coverts, basal half of primary- UROBRACHYA AXILLARIS 61 coverts, and a variable portion of the edges of the greater-coverts cinnamon. Iris dark brown; bill bluish horn-colour, inclining to white at the tips and edges of the mandibles; tarsi and feet black. Total length 6°3 inches, culmen 0°6, wing 3:4, tail 3-0, tarsus0-95. g, 25. 2.74. Durban (Shelley). Var. U. affis. Differs from the last only in having the lesser wing- coverts golden yellow and the brown on the wing-coverts of a slightly more chocolate shade. Total length 6:5 inches, culmen 0°65, wing 3:4, tail 2:7, tarsus 0:95. Cage-bird, Zoological Gardens. Adult female. Brown; crown and back pale brown with broad blackish brown centres to the feathers of the forehead, crown and back, less strongly marked on the rump and upper tail-coverts; wings and tail dark brown, with pale brown edges to the feathers, passing into orange on the lesser coverts; sides of head and the under parts generally, brownish buff; a blackish band extending from the gape to the ear-coverts, which latter are shaded with dark brown; flanks with blackish brown shaft-stripes; under wing-coyerts cinnamon. Iris brown; bill, tarsi, feet and claws pale brown. Total length 5:5 inches, culmen 0:6, wing 2°85, tail 1:9, tarsus 0°85. 9, 5.6.75. Pinetown (T. L. Ayres). Adult male in winter plumage. Similar to the female but differing in having the lesser wing-coverts orange scarlet, and the quills and tail-feathers black. g,16. 7.75. Botha’s Hill (T. L. Ayres). Immature. Similar in plumage to the female, but with less orange red shade on the lesser wing-coverts. ¢ and ?, Pinetown (T. L. Ayres.) The Natal Fan-tailed Whydah inhabits Southern Africa east of about 25° H. long. and south of 10° 8. lat. The most western known range for this species is the Kei River in Eastern Cape Colony, where Sir Andrew Smith pro- cured the type. Mr. Rickard has found this Whydah nesting near Kast London in October and November. In Natal and throughout South-eastern Africa it is abun- dant in the more marshy districts. Cols. Butler and Feilden and Capt. Savile Reid met with the species in Natal, and observe : “ Hxtremely common at Richmond Road in December, where it was breeding. The nest is a slight but strong construction of grasses, nearly spherical, with a side entrance, built among the reeds. Eggs bluish green, tinted with olive, with large blotches and a few small spots, some clear dark olive, others 62 UROBRACHYA AXILLARIS obscured, as if washed over by the ground colour; 0°8 SEU tie The late Dr. Stark gives the following account of the habits of the species: ‘* Like all the members of this genus, they are polygamous in their habits, and in spring the handsome males, looking very brilliant and spruce in their recently acquired plumage of velvety black, with scarlet and orange epaulettes, may be seen flitting over the reeds or grass with a curious ‘flopping’ flight, each one attended and closely followed in all its movements by ten or twelve females, insignificant-looking little brown birds, which nearly always keep close together in a ‘bunch’ a few yards behind their lord and master. About the beginning of November the females separate and com- mence building their nests. These are never very close together, although they are all within a certain distance that the male seems to look upon as his own exclusive property, and from which he drives other males of his kind, as well as those of the much larger and stronger Coliopasser procne who, hampered by their long tails, stand no chance in a fight with their smaller but much more active antagonist. Hach female builds and occupies a separate nest. During the time she is sitting, the male stations himself on a tall weed somewhere near the centre of his harem, and keeps a sharp look-out for intruders; occasionally flying round to see how matters are progressing at his various establishments. Should a man or other dangerous enemy approach, he flies to each nest in succession with a warning note, upon which the sitting females leave their nests, creep under the grass for some yards, then rise on the wing to follow him to a distance. The nest, usually built in the centre of a tuft of grass, from eight inches to a foot off the ground, is a beautifully light and airy struc- ture, oval in shape and domed, with a side entrance near the top; it measures about four inches and a half in height, and UROBRACHYA AXILLARIS 63 three inches in diameter, is constructed of fine grass, with the flowering tops attached, woven in a sort of open network, so that the sides can be seen through, without any additional lining. The sides of the nest are attached to many of the surrounding grass-stalks, the blades and tops of the latter being bent over in the form of a canopy, so as to completely conceal it from above. The eggs, laid towards the end of December, are three in number. ‘They have a_highly- polished surface of a clear sea green, marked with large spots and blotches of deep olive brown. They measure 0°80 x 0:58, “These Widow Birds feed largely on insects, including grasshoppers, locusts, mantides, and termites, also upon various seeds, especially small grass-seeds. In winter the old and young birds form good-sized flocks, but never seem to wander far from their breeding station,” Major Clarke saw a few full plumaged males in damp places near Ingogo; they were shy, restless and pugnacious. It appears to be abundant in the Portuguese territory on both sides of the Zambesi and in Nyasaland. Mr. Cavendish pro- cured two specimens at Mapicuti in winter dress in September, and Dr. Stuhlmann collected thirteen near Quilimane, where, he informs us, it is known to the natives as the * Mribbe.”” In Nyasaland the species has been obtained at the Palumbi River and at Kotakota. To the north in German Hast Africa, it is replaced by U. zanzibarica, and in West Africa by U. bocaget and U. mechowi. U. affinis, Cab., which I have figured, is, I believe, as Dr. Reichenow has suggested (Vog. Afr. ii. p. 129), a variety of plumage of U. axillaris caused by its having lived for some time in captivity. The type is a bird which died in the Berlin Aquarium, and there are two similar specimens in the British Museum, both of which were cage-birds, one in the Zoological 64 UROBRACHYA ZANZIBARICA Gardens, London, and the other in the possession of the well- known aviculturist, Mr. J. Abraham. One can hardly believe that the U. affinis and U. pheenicea (Reichenow, J. f. O. 1892, p. 45) are alike in plumage, so I would suggest that the former may belong to U. mechowi, which Dr. Reichenow has, I think, wrongly referred to U. bocagei, a species which, I believe, has never been procured from so far north as the Quanza River. Urobrachya zanzibarica. (Pl. 30, fig. 1.) Urobrachya zanzibarica, Shelley, P. Z. 8. 1881, p. 516 Pangani, Usam- bara, Melinda, Lamu. Urobrachya phcenicea (non Heugl.), Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 225 (1890 pt. S. of Equator); Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 330 (1896 pt. «.”); Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 180 (1904 pt. German E. Afr.). Urobrachya hildebrandti, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 225 (1890) Mombasa ; Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 329 (1896). Urobrachya phcenicea hildebrandti, Reichen. Vog. Afr. ili. p. 132 (1904). Urobrachya nigronotata, Sharpe, Bull. B. O. C. vii. p. 7 (1897) Witw. Similar to U. axillaris in all its stages of plumage, and with the same shade of scarlet on the lesser wing-coverts, but differs in the bill being larger, and in full plumaged males the primary-coverts are mostly cinnamon. In the type the greater series of wing-coverts are almost entirely cinnamon. Total length 6-5 inches, culmen 0:7, wing 3°4, tail 2°7, tarsus 1:0. Melinda (Kirk). The type of U. hildebrandti differs only in having the greater wing- coverts almost entirely black ; wing 3°35 inches. Mombasa (Hildebrandt). The type of U. migronotata is intermediate between the two last in the colouring of the greater wing-coverts. Witu (Jackson). I cannot look upon these specimens as more than varieties of one species. The Zanzibar Fan-tailed Whydah inhabits East Africa between 1° S. lat. and 10° 8. lat. Owing to the absence, formerly, of any full plumaged examples of U. phenicea in the British Museum, Dr. Sharpe, in 1890, described one of the typical specimens of U. zanzt- barica as the ‘adult male” of U. phenicea (Heugl.), and © or tl & THE BIRDS OF AFRICA,PL. Xxx |.Urobrachya zanzibarica. Z. ” affinis. UROBRACHYA PH@NICEA 65 Dr. Reichenow (Vog. Afr. 11. pp. 130-133), by following Dr. Sharpe’s lead, has confused the synonomy and distribution of these two species. I doubt if either of the smaller-billed allied forms (U. azil- laris and U. phenicea) have been found in Hast Africa between 10° and 1° S. lat. To the large-billed form, U. zanzibarica, certainly belong all Sir John Kirk’s specimens from Pangani, Usambara, Melinda and Lamu, also two specimens from Mombasa, one a typically coloured bird and the other the type of U. hildebrandti, three of Bohndorff’s from Mtoni, one of Jackson’s from Witu (type of U. nigronotata), and a specimen procured by him at Yonte in Jubaland, “3, ad. 1. 9. 02.” All the other specimens I have seen of Mr. Jackson’s collecting belong to U. pheenicea, so that I think we may regard 1° S. lat. as the boundary between U. zanzibarica and U. phe- nicea, and to U. zanzibarica I should refer so-called U. phenicea from south of 1°S. lat. and the whole of U. phanicea hilde- brandti, Reichenow, which include the specimens collected by Fischer, Hildebrandt, Kirk, Bohndorff, Bohm, Marwitz and Filleborn. According to Fischer, the species is known in the Suaheli language as the “ Tshongue.” Urobrachya pheenicea. Coliuspasser phceniceus, Heugl. J. f. O. 1862, p. 304; 1863, p. 167 Sobat R. Urobrachya phcenicea, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 225 (1890 pt.) White Nile; Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 330 (1896); Reichen. Vég. Afr. iii. p. 130 (1904 pt.). ? Urobrachya media, Sharpe, Ibis, 1902, p. 118 W. Ankole. Urobrachya pheenicea media, Reichen. Vég. Afr. iii. p. 132 (1904). Urobrachya traversii (non Salvad.), Flower, P. Z. §. 1900, p. 957 Kaka. Male in breeding plumage. Similar to U. azillaris in size of bill and colouring, with the exception of the primary-coverts and greater wing- (October, 1904, 5 66 UROBRACHYA PHCNICEA coverts, which are of the same cinnamon colour as the median-coverts, with the black portion confined to the three innermost greater wing-coverts and the extreme ends of the primary-coverts. ‘Iris brown; bill pale horn blue; feet slaty black.” Total length 6:5 inches, culmen 0:6, wing 3°3, tail 2-7, tarsus 0°5. g, 28. 5.98. Nandi (Jackson). Adult female. Crown, back of neck, back, wings and tail mostly black, with tawny shaded brownish buff sides to the feathers; lesser wing-coverts with their edges more orange; a broad eyebrow and the sides of the head rufous buff, mottled with black on front of cheeks and hinder half of ear- coverts; underparts tawny-shaded brownish buff; crop, sides of neck and the flanks streaked with rather broad black shaft-stripes. ‘‘ Iris brown ; bill pale brown, the lower mandible whitish horn; feet brown, with a bluish tint.’’ Total length 5-5 inches, culmen 0:6, wing 2°9, tail 2:0, tarsus 0°85. 2, 28.5. 98. Nandi (Jackson). Adult male in winter. Head, neck, body and tail similar in colouring to those of the female; wings as in the full plumaged males, but with broader pale edges to the inner secondaries. g, 26.10.89. Kisumu (Jackson). Female, variety. Very similar to the male which has assumed most of its black feathers, but the tail, primaries and the lesser wing-coverts are as in the ordinary female; median wing-coverts black, with broad pale rufous edges; greater wing-coverts entirely jet black ; primary-coverts black, with broad rufous buff outer edges. Total length 5:0 inches, culmen 0:6, wing 2:8, tail 2:0, tarsus 0:8. 92, 23. 6.98. Nandi (Jackson). Heuglin’s Fan-tailed Whydah replaces U. zanzibarica in British East Africa from 1° 8. lat. to the White Nile, and possibly ranges further south on the western side of Victoria Nyanza; but is itself replaced in Angola by U. mechowi, and in Shoa by U. traversi. The species is apparently abundant throughout the marshy districts to the north of Victoria Nyanza, where Mr. Jackson has collected a large series from Ntebbi, Kampala, Nandi and other places. It has been recorded from Bukome, Itale, Mengo (Stuhlmann), and from Bukoba (Hmin), but I have not seen these specimens. In its most western known range Dr. Ansorge procured specimens at the Holulu River, in the Congo Free State, and others in Toru, Uganda and Usoga. In the Nile district Heuglin discovered the species at the Sobat River, and remarked that these birds were generally UROBRACHYA TRAVERSII 67 in noisy parties of from six to ten, frequenting the heads of the high grass. They have a melancholy flute-like note. The moults take place in July and November. The species has also been procured by him at Port Rek, by Antinori in the Kidsh country, and by Emin at Babira, Bora and Lado. Mr. Hawker met with these Whydahs at Fashoda and Kaka in flocks, frequenting the recently burnt ground near the river and the swamps; and in April and May the males were all in the brown winter plumage. Capt. Stanley Flower also mentions seeing flocks of hundreds of these birds in the long dry grass by the White Nile, near Kaka, and I have received the following notes from Mr. A. L. Butler: ‘In February and March, 1902, I found it common in moderate-sized flocks from Kaka to Fashoda, up the Bahr-el-Gazel to Meshra-er-Rek, and also along the river-edge. In the desolate swamps of the ‘Sudd,’ where there was no mixture of dry ground, I never saw it. These birds have a heavy flopping flight.” Sir Harry Johnston procured at Tarangola, in West Ankole, two male birds in the brown dress, the types of U. media, Sharpe; these specimens have the plumage more strongly shaded with rufous than any others I have seen, but a some- what similar variation in colour is to be met with in females collected by Mr. Jackson at Ntebbi, and is probably a sign of immaturity, or may be caused by rust in the water. Urobrachya traversii. Urobrachya traversii, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Genoa, 1888, p. 287 Shoa ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 226 (1890); Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 331 (1896) Grant, Ibis, 1904, p. 257 Shoa. Urobrachya phcenicea traversii, Reichen. Vég. Afr. iii. p. 132 (1904). Male in breeding plumage. Velvety black, with the lesser wing-coverts reddish orange, fading into sulphur yellow towards the white basal half of these feathers; primary-coverts, greater and median-coverts (with the 68 UROBRACHYA MECHOWI exception of the innermost feathers) uniform cinnamon ; secondaries with some imperfect buff edges; under wing-coverts cinnamon. Iris brown; bill greyish horn colour; feet black. Total length 7:3 inches, culmen 0:65, wing 3:6, tail 3:4, tarsus 1:0. 3g, 30.6.02. 8. Abyssinia (Degen). In the size of the bill and in all its other stages of plumage it closely resembles U. phenicea and U. azillaris. Trayersi’s Fan-tailed Whydah inhabits Shoa and Southern Abyssinia. The species was discovered by Dr. Traversi at Antotto in Shoa, and specimens have been collected in that country at Sutta and Urafa Bonata by Dr. Ragazzi, who found it in full plumage in October and not rare. Mr. HE. Degen met with it in flocks of male birds only at Manna Gasha west of Adis Ababa in June. In Southern Abyssinia Lord Lovat procured specimens at Lekaniti, and writes: ‘‘ A very local bird, but in large numbers where it is found. On our western journey from Adis Ababa to Dabous we passed through country inhabited first by this species, then during a few days’ march we saw only Penthe- triopsis macrocerca, and then once more the Urobrachya only was met with, the long-tailed Weaver, Penthetria laticauda, remaining constant throughout.” Mr. Pease saw large flocks of these birds among the grass and sedge at the edges of Lake Zwai and procured specimens at Lekamti. wy [hic ow My 7 , QA ~ Wr Urobrachya mechowi. Urobrachya mechowi, Cab. Orn. Centralbl. 1881, p. 183; id. J. f. O. 1882, p. 122 Angola. Urobrachya bocagei, pt. Sharpe Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 226 (1890) ‘Sp.e, Columbo”’ ; Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 1383 (1904 pt.) Quanza R. and Angola. Urobrachya axillaris (non Smith), Shelley, Ibis, 1902, p. 165 Karwngwesi. Urobrachya phenicea quanze, Hartert, Bull. B. O. C. xiii. p. 56 (1908). Quanza fi. ; Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 133 (1904). ? Urobrachya, affinis, Reichen, J. f. O. 1892, p. 45 Mengo. UROBRACHYA MECHOWI 69 Type of U. quanze. Very similar in colouring to U. traversti, with the lesser wing-coverts slightly yellower; remainder of wing-coverts uniform pale cinnamon, with the exception of a portion of the innermost greater wing-coverts black; but is a larger bird with a distinctly stronger bill. Total length 6:5 inches, culmen 0°8, wing 3°8, tail 2:5, tarsus 1:1. Barraca (Pemberton). Mechow’s Fan-tailed Whydah ranges from the Quanza River eastward to Karungwesi, and northward possibly to Uganda. In Angola Major v. Mechow discovered the species, and procured several specimens at Malandje in December, January and February. A little further south Mr. Monteiro obtained a male in breeding plumage at Colombo on the Quanza River, November, 1868, which is in the British Museum. Along this river, at Barraca, Mr. Pemberton collected two males in full plumage in May, one of which is the type of U. phenicea quanze, Hartert. To this species undoubtedly belong three specimens, in winter plumage, sent to the British Museum by Sir Alfred Sharpe from Karungwesi close to the Kolongatsi River, which runs westward into Lake Meru. Its possible occurrence in Uganda rests on one of Dr. Stuhlmann’s specimens from Mengo referred to U. affinis, Cab. U. bocaget, one of the best marked species of this genus, is known from Mossamedes and Benguela only, and may be said to be represented by the present form, an almost equally well- marked species to the north of the latitude of the Quanza River. The large size and colouring of the wings shows that U. traversti is the northern representative of U. mechowi, from which the former differs in the smaller size of the bill, much in the same way as U. awillaris and U. phenicea differ from U. zanzibarica. 70 UROBRACHYA BOCAGEI Urobrachya bocagei. Urobrachya bocagei, Sharpe, Cat. Afr. B. p. 63 (1870) Hwilla ; id. Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 226, pl. 9 (1890 pt.) Benguela ; Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 332 (1896); Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 133 (1904 pt.) S. of Quanza R. Male in full plumage. Black, with the exception of the following parts of the wing: lesser wing-coverts chrome yellow, remainder of wing-coverts pale cinnamon; base of primaries buff, which colour shows well in front of the under wing-coverts. ‘Iris brown; bill whitish grey; tarsi and feet black.” Total length 7 inches, culmen 0-6, wing 3:4, tail 3:1, tarsus 1-0. Type, ¢, Huilla (Anchieta). Bocage’s Fan-tailed Whydah inhabits Portuguese West Africa between the Quanza and Cunene Rivers. The species is at the present time known from Caconda and Huilla only, and according to Anchieta’s notes it is called by the natives of the former place the ‘‘ Quicengo,” and of the latter the ‘ Lele.’ The type which is in the British Museum came from Huilla. The best character for distinguishing the species from all the other members of the genus is the pale bases of the primaries showing well in front of the under wing-coverts ; this character, coupled with the wing-measurement (3°4), readily distinguishes it from its larger near ally, U. mechowi, Cab. (U. pheenicea quanze, Hartert). Genus V. PYROMEBLANA. The males only of the Bishop-birds, like the Whydahs, discard, by a spring moult, the modest mottled brown plumage, which is retained through- out the year by the females, and assume a brilliant nuptial dress in which bright red or yellow and velvety black are the most striking features. As in the last two genera, the neck at this season also becomes decorated with a frill of lengthened broad feathers. The tail remains at all times short and nearly square; otherwise the structure closely resembles that of the other genera of the Vidwine. PYROMELANA Pyromelana, Bp. Saggio Distr. Met. Anim. Vertebr. p. 141 (1831) . Oryx (non Oken, 1846) Less. Traité p. 437 (1831) . Euplectes, Swains. Oinee B. li. *. 278 (1837). Hyperanthus, Gistel, ye Thierr. p. ix. (1848) ‘ Xanthomelana, Bp. Gane ie 5 447 (1850) : Orynx, Reichenb. Av. Syst. p. 76, fig. 28 (1850) Taha, Reichenb. Singv. p. 73 (1861) Type. P. ora. P. capensis. P. franciscana. P. capensis. P. capensis. P. taha. The genus is confined to Tropical and South Africa. KEY TO THE SPECIES, FOUNDED ON MALES BREEDING PLUMAGE. a. Head and neck entirely black; some bright yellow on the plumage. a1, Lesser wing-coverts and lower half of back pale yellow ; under tail-coverts black. a*, Bill stouter. a8, Quills with broad rufous buff inner margins; thighs generally browner. a*, Larger: wing more than 3 inches; lower mandible pale : b*. Smaller; bill entirely black . 6%, Quills blacker ; rarely any trace of butf inner margins; thighs generally en- tirely black ; wing about 3 inches . b?, Bill more slender; quills with rufous buff inner edges; thighs mostly brown . b1. Lesser wing-coverts brown; mantle and lower back orange yellow; under tail- coverts white b. Head and neck never entirely black: c1, Lower back, as well as upper and under tail-coverts, yellow. c®. Entire crown yellow. c®&. Neck yellow, ees a broad throat collar aa ac Neck black, soauthae ¢ a Broad injec! collar. d3, capensis. approximans. j» 7 avanthomelas. / phenicomera. / 7 aurea. afra. / 71 IN PYROMELANA “I wo c+, Smaller; generally some yellow on letswitNal:, Smaller; wing 2°45, tarsus 0°7 ; more yellow near the crop b>, Larger; wing 2:7, tarsus 0°8; less yellow near the crop d?, Forehead and front of crown orange red; remainder of head black . dt. Lower back, as well as tail-coverts, never yellow ; some red on the neck. e2, Sides of abdomen and the under tail- coverts scarlet. e3. Forehead and crown scarlet; entire throat black f. Forehead and crown black; entire throat red . f?. No red on abdomen nor under tail- coverts. g*. Forehead black. e*. Upper tail-coverts red of the same shade as the entire lower back ; under wing-coverts pale. c>. Larger; wing more than 28; front two-thirds of crown black d>, Smaller; wing less than 2:7; front half only of the crown black. a®, Red on plumage more scarlet b®. Red on plumage more yellow . f*. Under tail-coverts brown or blackish. e>. Under wing-coverts pale f®. Under wing-coverts black. c®. Upper half of throat black . d®. Chin black; remainder of throat orange red aes h8, Forehead scarlet like the crown; under wing-coverts black ladoensis. |». 2 taha. hf, &¢ stricta. ¢ diademata. | migriventis. | franciscana. oriz. ‘ sundevalli. werthert. / friederichsoni. } ansorget. /. | guerowt f. | flammiceps. |: 1g G2 02 hot /¢ 2 PYROMELANA CAPENSIS ~I Ss) Pyromelana capensis. Loxia capensis, Linn. 8. N. i. p. 306 (1766) Cape of Good Hope. Pyromelana capensis, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 236 (1890); Butler, Foreign Finches in Captivity, p. 295, pl. 53 (1894); Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 334 (1896) ; Nehrkorn, Kat. Hiers. p. 124 (1899) egg; Harris, Essays and Photographs, p. 103, pl. 24, fig. 2 (1901) nest. Euplectes capensis, Reichen. Vég. Afr. iii. p. 126 (1904). Loxia neevia, Gm. 8. N. i. p. 845 (1788). Fringilla phalerata, Licht. Verz. Doubl. p. 22 (1823) Cape. Male in breeding plumage. Black, with the lower half of the back and the least and median series of wing-coverts bright canary yellow; scapulars with broad pale brown edges; greater coverts and quills with very narrow brownish buff edges; under surface of quills black, with broad rufous buff inner edges ; under wing-coverts rufous buff, shading into yellow along the bend of the wing; thighs pale brown or with a few black feathers. Ivis dark brown ; bill black, with lower mandible buff; feet pale brown. Total length 6:2 inches, culmen 0-75, wing 3°4, tail 2°5, tarsus 1:0. 3, 19. 11. 65. Cape Town (Andersson). Adult female. Upper parts mottled blackish brown, with pale brown edges to the feathers: lesser and median wing-coverts and lower half of the back with yellow edges to the feathers; under surface of wings as in the males. Iris dark brown; bill horny buff; feet pale brown. Wing 3:4, tail 2-1. Cape Town. Male in winter plumage. Similar to the female in colouring, with the exception of the lesser and median wing-coverts and the lower back, which are bright yellow. The Cape Black and Yellow Bishop-bird is confined to Cape Colony. The species is abundant about Cape Town, ranging northward to Clan William and eastward into the George District; beyond this limited range it is replaced by a smaller very similarly coloured species, P. approximans. With regard to its habits, Stark writes: “This large Bishop-bird is nearly everywhere common in the Western Colony, and although it seems to prefer the vicinity of marshy ‘In the British Museum specimens, only one has the lower mandible nearly lack. 74 PYROMELANA CAPENSIS vleis or streams, it may be frequently found in very dry and arid tracts of country. ‘lhe male in spring and summer is fond of uttering his harsh notes from the top of a tall bush or reed, and is then very conspicuous in his contrasting glossy black and yellow plumage. The female at this season is not often seen, keeping much to thick reed-beds or bushes, even when not sitting on her eggs. In autumn the old birds of both sexes, together with their young, form considerable flocks, which do not separate until the following spring. The long, loose, yellow feathers of the lower back and rump of the breeding males are erectile, and when the bird is approaching a hen, or is excited, they stand out at right angles to the body, giving him an extraordinary appearance, apparently irresistible to the impressionable female.” This mode of courting the hens has also been remarked in the Shrikes belonging to the genus Dryoscopus. Stark further remarks: “The song consists of a series of harsh and discordant notes. Although these birds feed largely on grass-seeds or grain, and are accused by the farmers of working havoc with the crops, they devour a considerable number of insects, and feed their young on small caterpillars and grubs. This species nests in September or October. The nest, a domed structure with a side entrance, is woven out of fine grass, and is usually attached by its sides to three or four reed-stems; sometimes it is built in thick bushes at a height of four or five feet. The eggs, almost always four in number, have a pale greenish blue ground colour nearly concealed by spots, blotches and lines of dark brown or slate colour. They average 0°85 x 0°60, and are hatched in about fourteen days.” With regard to the moult, Layard remarks: “ The first thing which changes is the bill; the black commences to show at the tip of the lower mandible, which gradually darkens, from its usual horn colour to the deepest black; before this is accomplished the upper mandible PYROMELANA APPROXIMANS 75 has begun to blacken, and a few black feathers are visible round the neck; the breast next shows a change, and a feather or two on the back darkens, and thus by degrees the whole bird changes to its splendid black. This transformation begins about July, and is completed in September, which is the nesting season. The moult back again begins in the same manner.” I have here quoted Layard’s account of the moult, for it gives a good idea of what takes place in the change from the winter to the summer plumage in all the four closely allied species ; but the bird he took his notes from must have been a specimen of P. approximans, which is the only one of the four in which the lower mandible changes to black for the breeding season. Pyromelana approximans. Orynx approximans, Cab. Mus. Hein. i. p. 177 (1851) Kaffraria (Berlin Mus.). Euplectes capensis approximans, Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 127 (1904 pt.) Euplectes capensis, var. minor, Grill, Zool. Anteckn. pp. 10, 22 (1858). Pyromelana minor, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 238 (1890); Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 335 (1896). Euplectes xanthomelas (non Riipp.), Butler, Feilden and Reid, Zool. 1882, p: 297 Natal. Similar to P. capensis in all its plumages; but differs in being smaller, and in full breeding plumage the males have the lower mandible black and there is little or no brown on the thighs. Total length 5:9 inches, culmen 0:55, wing 3:0, tail 2:5, tarsus 0:9. g, 26.10.81. Newcastle (Butler). Female. Culmen 0:5, wing 2:7, tail 19, tarsus 075. ?, 14.5. 78. Pine- town (T. L. Ayres). The Natal Black and Yellow Bishop-bird inhabits Hastern South Africa from the Knysna to Inhambane in Mosambique. In the British Museum there is a fair series of this species, including specimens from the Knysna River (where its range 76 PYROMELANA XANTHOMELAS meets that of P. capensis), from Natal, Zululand, the Orange River Colony, and the Transvaal. Mr. W. L. Sclater records it from Inhambane, which is the furthest north I can trace the species. In habits, as in plumage, it closely resembles P. capensis. Major Clarke has kindly informed me that he met with the species near Ingogo, frequenting only the higher slopes of the mountains. Pyromelana xanthomelas. Euplectes xanthomelas, Riipp. N. Wirb. Vog. p. 94 (1835-40) Abyssinia ; Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 128 (1904). Pyromelana xanthomelena, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 239 (1890); Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 333 (1896); Grant, Ibis, 1904, p. 257 Shoa. Male in breeding plumage. Black, with the lower half of the back and the least and median series of wing-coverts bright canary yellow; scapulars with some broad pale brown edges; greater coverts and quills with very narrow brownish buff edges; under surface of quills entirely black or with obsolete brownish buff inner edges; under wing-coverts rufous buff, shading into yellow along the bend of the wing; thighs with or without a few pale brown feathers. Iris brown; bill with the lower mandible greyish horn colour, the upper one darker, sometimes entirely black; tarsi and feet brown. ‘Total length 5:5 inches, culmen 0°55, wing 3:0, tail 2:0, tarsus 0-9. Abyssinia (Rippell). Adult female. Above mottled blackish brown, with pale brown edges to the feathers ; lesser and median coverts and feathers of the lower back with pale edges; under surface of wings as in the males. Iris and legs brown; bill pale horn colour, darker and browner on the upper mandible. Wing 2:7. @, Ashanghi (Blanford). Male in winter plumage. Similar to the female, but differs in having the same amount of yellow on the wings and back as in the full plumaged males. Rippell’s Black and Yellow Bishop-bird ranges from north of the Orange River and Limpopo into Angola and Abyssinia. In Portuguese West Africa the species has been procured by Monteiro, who found it to be common in the Cambambe district and known to the natives as the “Saca.” Anchieta has PYROMELANA XANTHOMELAS 77 collected specimens at Caconda and Quindumbo and gives the names by which they are known at these places, respectively, as ‘‘ Pinine” and “ Quisengo.” I have not seen a specimen from German South-west Africa, but the following notes by Andersson refer to the species: “This is a comparatively scarce bird in Damara and Great Namaque Lands, but is very abundant at Lake Ngami; it sometimes occurs in large flocks in the open country, and is also found in small communities in the neighbourhood of water and in humid situations where it breeds.” ‘The measurements he gives are probably taken from the specimens of P. capensis he collected at Cape Town, two of which are now in the British Museum. To the north of the Limpopo River P. approximans is probably entirely replaced by the present species, which is represented in the British Museum by two specimens collected by Mr. T. E. Buckley and Mr. Selous in Matabeleland, by Frank Oates’s from Inyati and Hope Fontein, by Jameson's from the Umfuli River, and by Sowerby’s from Fort Chi- quaqua in Mashonaland. There, according to Mr. Sowerby, it is common and mostly seen in the open country. Mr. Guy Marshall found it much more generally distributed than P. sundevalli, and not so much attached to the reed-beds, and he writes : ‘“‘ The nest is generally suspended from a twig over water and roughly but strongly built of coarse grass, the seed- heads of which are ingeniously twisted into the interior of the nest, so as to form a deep soft lining. The eggs (0°98 x 0°66) are of a bluish green colour, handsomely marked with surface blotches of both dark and light brown, and underlying patches of violet grey.” Sir John Kirk met with the species along the Zambesi and Shiré Rivers, and in British Central Africa specimens have been collected at Zomba, Milanje, Buwa, Mkukula, Katunga, = 78 PYROMELANA PHCNICOMERA South Angoniland, Malosa and Chanda, and according to Sir Alfred Sharpe, it is known to the natives as the “ Chiunga.” Capt. Storms procured the species on the western side of Lake Tanganyika, and specimens have been collected by Bohm at Karema; by Fischer at Lindi, in Ugogo and the Usambara countries, along the Pangani River, at Mombasa, Lamu and Susua. Mr. Oscar Neumann met with it at Donje-Nai, Magila, Kikuyu, Moschi and Umbugwe. Mr. Jackson found the species fairly plentiful in the Teita country and along the hill-sides at Elgeyu, where it was breed- ing in July and August. ‘‘ Eggs, two or three. Nest in long grass, and made of fine dry grass, very scantily constructed, with a sort of porch made of the seed-heads of grass.” At the Eldoma Ravine in November he met with the species in small flocks and found “the young birds of the year, moulting.” He also observed the species near Naiwasha Lake, Nandi, and on Mount Elgon at an elevation of 6,000 feet in December. Its occurrence in Somaliland is known to me only by an immature specimen obtained by Dr. Donaldson Smith at Budda. On the neighbouring border of Abyssinia, Lord Lovat shot a specimen at Waha-Zinzero, and Mr. Pease others at Adis Ababa. In Shoa twenty-seven specimens have been collected by Antinori and Dr. Ragazzi, so it must be abundant throughout that district. The typical specimens were pro- cured in Central Abyssinia by Ruppell. Heuglin met with these Weavers in the highlands of Wagara up to an elevation of 10,000 feet, and in the Upper White Nile district Antinori found them in the country of the Kidj Negroes. Pyromelana phcenicomera. Euplectes phcenicomera, Gray, Ann. v. Mag. Nat. Hist. (3) x. p. 444 (1862) Camaroons. Pyromelana phcenicomera, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 239 (1890); Shelley, B. Afr. I. No 336 (1896). Euplectes capensis phcenicomerus, Reichen. Vég. Afr, iii, p. 127 (1904). PYROMELANA AUREA zfs) Very similar to P. wanthomelas in size and colouring, but differing from it and the other two allied species in the bill being slightly more slender. Lower mandible pale, upper one black; under surface of quill with broad, rather obscure, rufous buff inner edges; thighs mostly pale brown. Male: total length.4°8 inches, culmen 0:6, wing 2°9, tail 1-9, tarsus 0:95. Female: wing 2°9, tarsus 0°85. Burton’s Black and Yellow Bishop-bird is probably confined to the highlands of Camaroons. Here the species was discovered by the late Sir R. Burton, in the mountains, at 7,000 feet, and Sir Harry Johnston pro- cured a fine series of specimens at elevations ranging from 8,000 to 10,000 feet. More recently Dr. Preuss has met with it at Buea, so that it has not been recorded from a lower elevation in that country than 7,000 feet. Iam inclined to regard the species as a very local form, representing its extremely near ally, P. wanthomelas, in the highlands of Camaroons. Mr. Boyd Alexander refers a female specimen he pro- cured at Kwobia on the Gold Coast to this species, and Swainson, under the heading of Hwuplectes capensis (B. W. Afr. i. p. 180) writes: “‘ We suspect that the full plumage is not acquired even after the first moult; for although the bird is common to Senegal and other parts of Africa, specimens usually seen are in immature plumage.” These notes may belong to this species, but it appears to me quite as probable that they refer to P. xanthomelas. Pyromelana aurea. Loxia aurea, Gm. 8. N. ii. p. 846 (1788). Pyromelana aurea, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 235 (1890) ; Shelley, Ibis, 1886, p. 354, pl. 9, fig. 2; id. B. Afr. I. No. 338 (1896); Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 113 (1904); Bocage, Jorn. Lisb. 1904, p. 82 Sé. Thomas Isl. Euplectes aurinotus, Swains. An. in Menag. p. 310 (1838). 80 PYROMELANA AFRA Adult male. Head, throat and breast jet black; hinder half of the neck and nearly the whole of the back bright orange yellow; the ends of the feathers of the lower back broad and square, with narrow black margins ; lower rump and upper tail-coverts dark brown with paler edges; wings and tail black, with some buffy brown edges to the feathers ; under wing-coverts, inner edges of the quills, thighs, lower abdomen and the under tail-coverts buffy white. Iris; tarsi and feet brown; bill blackish. Total length 5:4 inches, culmen 0:65, wing 2°75, tarsus 0'8. Quanza R. (Brit. Mus.). The Golden-backed Bishop-bird inhabits the Island of St. Thomas and probably ranges from Gaboon into Benguela. On the Island of St. Thomas Mr. F. Newton has collected a number of specimens, and informs us that it is known as the ** Que-blancana-janilo,” so we may presume it to be abundant there. I find very little definite information regarding its occurrence on the African continent. Gujon brought a speci- men to Paris in his collection from Gaboon. In the British Museum there are three examples, two labelled “* W. Africa” and the other ‘‘ Quanza River.” This latter skin was formerly in my own collection, but I never knew the collector’s name. The type of the species, figured by Brown under the name of the *‘Golden-backed Finch,” was supposed to have come from Benguela, and that locality is probably correct, for M. Furtado D’Antas’s collection, which was mostly composed of specimens from that country, contained an unlabelled example of the present species. Pyromelana afra. Loxia afra, Gm. 8. N. i. p. 857 (1788). Pyromelana afra, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 241 (1890) ; Butler, Foreign Finches in Captivity, p. 298, pl. 54 (1894); Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 246 (1896); Nehrkorn, Kat. Hiers. p. 124 (899) egg ; Hartert, Nov. Zool. 1901, p. 844 Niger; Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 116 (1904). Loxia melanogastra, Lath. Ind. Orn. i. p. 394 (1790) Africa. Fringilla carunculacea, Licht. Verz. Doubl. p. 23 (1828) Senegambia, Worabée, Vieill. Ois. Chant. p. 52, pl. 28 (1805). i PYROMELANA AFRA 81 Male in breeding plumage. Upper parts bright canary yellow, with narrow black terminal edges to the feathers of the nape and hind neck ; a band across the upper back next to the neck and the scapulars black, with yellow terminal edges to the feathers; wings and tail dark brown, with narrow buff edges to the feathers; under wing-coverts and inner edges of quills isabelline; sides of head, chin, upper and middle throat and the breast black; a broad yellow collar across the lower throat shaded with chestnut in the middle; sides of body and the under tail-coverts bright yellow ; thighs buff, tinted with yellow. Iris brown; bill black; tarsi and feet reddish brown. Total length 4-5 inches, culmen 0:5, wing 2°3, tail 1:3, tarsus 0°75. Hgga (Forbes). Adult female. Upper parts mottled blackish brown, with pale brown edges to the feathers ; lower back and upper tail-coverts more uniform pale brown ; under wing-coverts and inner edges to the quills isabelline ; a broad eyebrow and the under parts buffy white, with a shade of brown on the lower throat, crop, sides of the body and thighs; crop and flanks streaked with with dark brown ; bill pale horny brown. Wing 2:0. @, Egga (Forbes). Males in winter plumage are similar to the female, and the immature birds apparently differ in having no streaks on the crop and flanks. The western Yellow - crowned Bishop-bird ranges from Senegambia to the Niger, possibly into Benguela. In Senegambia the species has been obtained by Marche and De Compiégne at Daranka, by Dr. Rendall near Bathurst on the Gambia; Verreaux received it from Casamanse, and in the Bremen Museum there is one from Bissao. It has not been recorded from Liberia, and it is not a common bird on the Gold Coast, for when I was there with Buckley in February and March, we never met with the species, nor was it pro- cured there by Drs. Reichenow and Liihder; so that it may be to some extent migratory, for my resident friend, Mr. John Smith, procured two specimens at Accra after J left the country. These are now in the British Museum along with three from Fantee and one from the Volta River collected by Ussher, who wrote: ‘“ Seen at times in large flocks; swamps preferred by them.” Mr. Boyd Alexander obtained a single specimen at Karaga (10° N. lat.) in the hinterland, and in Togoland the species has been procured only at Mangu by [October, 1904, 6 82 PYROMELANA AFRA Lieut. Thierry. In the Niger district specimens have been collected by Dr. Hartert at Loko, by Forbes at Hgga, and by the late Capt. Thompson at Iddah. This latter specimen is probably the one in the British Museum, and the locality, Fernando. Po, incorrect, so I have not entered within the range of this species either Fernando Po or the Quanza River, the latter locality resting on a specimen labelled “ Quanza (Whiteley),’’ contained in a small collection procured from Mr. Whiteley, for the Lisbon Museum, in 1876. It is also recorded by Dr. Reichenow (Vég. Afr. iii. p. 117) from ‘‘ Benguela II. (Mocquerys).” My objection to these three latter-named localities for the species is that it has not otherwise been mentioned from south of the Niger River. The group to which I have applied the name of Yellow- crowned Bishop-birds comprises four species. The present one is well marked; the other three are scarcely distinguishable at first sight, the only constant character being their size. The smallest is P. ladoensis, with a wing measuring about 2°2 inches inhabiting North-east Africa to the north of the Equator; it is sometimes, but not always, easily recognisable by having the sides of the chest strongly marked with yellow, which is never met with in P. afra or P. stricta, although all the forms have a yellow patch on the sides of the crop. That the yellow on the sides of the chest in P. ladoensis is not a constant character is proved by a series of five full plumaged males obtained by Emin at Lado in June and July; in one of these the sides of the chest are uniform black, as in P. taha and P. stricta, while in two others the flanks are almost entirely yellow, as in the type of P. ladoensis, and the other two are intermediate in colouring. In P. taha and P. stricta there is never any trace of yellow on the sides of the chest beyond the crop-patch; in the former the wing measurement is 2°4 and in the latter 2°7 inches, PYROMELANA LADOENSIS 85 Pyromelana ladoensis. (Pl. 29. fig. 1.) Euplectes ladoensis, Reichen, J. f. O. 1885, p. 218 Lado. Pyromelana ladoensis, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 244 (1890); Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 347 (1896); Reichen, Vég. Afr. iii. p. 115 (1904). Male in breeding plumage. Very similar to P. taha, but slightly smaller. It differs often, but not always, in having more yellow on the sides of the body, which in some specimens are entirely bright yellow. ‘Iris brown; bill black ; legs shrimp brown’”’ (Jackson). Total length 4:3 inches, culmen 0:5, wing 2:2, tail 1-4, tarsus 0°65. g. 11.8.79. Lado (Emin). Adult female. Similar to that of P taha ; eyebrows slightly shaded with yellow ; scarcely any dark shaft-stripes near the crop. ?, 28. 6.81. Lado (Emin). The Lado Yellow-crowned Bishop-bird inhabits British Hast Africa and the White Nile. The most western range known for the species is the Nile Valley. Emin records it as abundant near Lado, where he procured the type. In the British Musenm there are, from this locality, five males in full breeding plumage, shot in June and July. These are most interesting as they show that the amount of yellow on the sides of the chest is variable, and that the small size is the only reliable character by which the species can be distinguished from the South African P. taha and the Abyssinian P. stricta. In the British Museum there are also—a specimen obtained by Capt. Dunn at the mouth of the Zaref River, and three of Mr. Hawker’s from within twenty miles of Fashoda. Mr. Hawker found the species fairly common in flocks, with P. franciscana and other allied species, in March and April, when it was in the brown winter plumage. From British East Africa I have seen two of Mr. Jackson’s full plumaged males; they are like P. taha in colouring, but both have the wing-measurements only 2°2 inches, so that they belong to P. ladoensis, and Dr. Sharpe writes: “ This is 84 PYROMELANA TAHA a small form of P. taha with smaller measurements.” Mr. Jackson first met with these birds breeding in small numbers in a swamp two marches south of Doreta in Masailand, and also in the Eldoma Ravine; about the middle of September they were nesting in long grass. At Lake Rudolf Dr. Donaldson Smith procured a male in the brown mottled plumage in December, 1899, which may belong to either P. ladoensis or P. stricta, as the two forms probably meet in this district. Pyromelana taha. Euplectes taha, Smith, Rep. Exped. Centr. Afr. 1836, p. 50 Kurrichaine, g ; id. Ill. Zool. §. Afr. Aves. pl. 7 (1838). Pyromelana taha, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 242 (1890); Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 349 (1896) ; Nehrkorn, Kat. Hiers. p. 124 (1899) egg ; Reichen, Vég. Afr. iii. p. 114 (1904). Ploceus dubius, Smith, Rep. Exped. Centr. Afr. 1836, p. 50 Kurrichaine, ° . Adult male. Forehead, crown, nape, back, upper and under tail-coverts, sides of abdomen and the vent bright canary yellow; a broad black band across the hind neck joining on to the black sides of the mantle, which latter has the black feathers partially edged with yellow. Wings and tail dark brown, with very narrow brownish buff edges to the feathers; under surface of wings pale dusky brown, with the inner margins of the quills and the coverts brownish buff, fading into white towards the bend of the wing; sides of head, chin, throat, chest and centre of the abdomen jet black, with a patch of yellow on each side of the chest next to the crop. ‘“ Iris brown ; bill black ; tarsi and feet dusky brown.” Total length 4-5 inches, culmen 0:5, wing 2:4, tail 1:4, tarsus 0:65. 3, Transvaal (T. Ayres). Adult female. Upper parts mottled dark brown, with pale brown edges to the feathers ; a broad buff eyebrow; under parts buffy white, shaded with brown on the lower throat, front of chest and flanks, which parts are strongly marked with dark brown shaft-stripes of an angular form on the crop and front of the chest; under wing-coverts sandy buff; quills brown, with buff inner margins. ‘Iris light brown; upper mandible light dusky brown, lower one paler; tarsi and feet light dusky brown.’’ Length 4:0 inches, culmen 0:5, wing 2-4, tail 1:5, tarsus 0°65. ¢@,12.6.79. Potchef- stroom (T. Ayres). Male adult in winter plumage. Exactly like the female. ‘‘ Bill light PYROMELANA TAHA 85 dusky brown with the mandible pale, paler towards the base ; tarsi and feet light brown.’’ Wing 2°5. ¢g,18.6.79. Potchefstroom (T. Ayres). ) The Taha Yellow-crowned Bishop-bird ranges from Ben- guela and Nyasaland into Natal, but has not been recorded from Namaqualand nor from Cape Colony. In Portuguese West Africa, according to Anchieta, it is known to the natives at Humbe as the ‘‘ Changombe,” species has also been met with in this district at Humpata by Van der Kellen. In the British Museum there are four males from Ondonga; two of these, collected in November, are in winter plumage, and the others, killed in January, are in breeding dress. Andersson writes: “I do not recollect having met with this bird in Great Namaqualand or in Southern Damara- land, but it breeds in great abundance in Ondonga, and I have also seen specimens from Lake Ngami. It is found in flocks amongst trees, as well as on the reedy banks of rivers and in marshes, where it suspends its nest amongst the tall stalks of reeds and coarse grasses.” The Taha Bishop-bird is apparently absent from the whole of Namaqualand and Cape Colony. The late Sir Andrew Smith procured the type of the species and the type of his Ploceus dubius at Kurrichaine in Bechuanaland, and Mr. F. A. Barratt writes: “I have got them all the way up from the Modder River to Potchefstroom, near Bloemfontein, Rusten- berg, Pretoria, Nazareth, and I think I saw a few near the Goldfields.” In the British Museum there are specimens from the neighbourhood of Durban, a large series from Potchef- stroom, two from the Cheringoma district of Mosambique, and several from Fort Lister and the Palombe River in British Central Africa, collected by Mr. Whyte. With regard to the habits of the species, Stark writes: ‘In and the 86 PYROMELANA STRICTA the Transvaal and some parts of the Orange Free State these little Bishop-birds collect in immense flocks towards autumn and remain together until the following spring, when they break up into smaller companies, many of which appear to migrate, while others remain to breed in small colonies in the swamps or among reeds on the borders of vleis or streams. During autumn and winter these birds feed chiefly on fallen grass-seeds; they are also accused of doing considerable damage to the corn, and especially to millet-crops, but in summer they subsist largely on insects, and feed their young almost entirely on caterpillars and soft-bodied larve. Nothing can exceed the beauty of the males in their newly-acquired spring plumage of brilliant yellow and glossy black, and one never tires of watching these feathered gems as they hover with puffed-out plumage over the reeds or grass in which their mates are hidden, looking, as Ayres aptly remarks, ‘like balls of black and yellow floating slowly about over the grass.’ “The nests are neatly woven out of long pieces of fine grass in the form of deep purses, or half-closed bags, sus- pended from three or four reeds, usually over water. The eggs are laid about the end of December in the Northern Transvaal, but not until two months later in the North of Damaraland. ‘They are four or five in number, of a glossy white, dotted and sprinkled all over with very small specks of black or dark brown. They measure on the average 0°73 X 0°52.” Pyromelana stricta. Huplectes strictus, Heugl. Syst. Uebers. p. 39 (1856, nom. nud.) Semien ; Hartl. Orn. W. Afr. p. 129 (1857). Pyromelana stricta, Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 115 (1904). ? Fringilla abyssinica, Gm. 8. N. ii. p. 927 (1788) Abyssima. Euplectes scioanus, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Genov. 1884, p. 185 Shoa. PYROMELANA STRICTA 87 Pyromelana scioana, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 241 (1890); Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 348 (1896). Pyromelana taha intercedens, Erlanger, Orn. Monatsb. 1903, p. 23 Arusi ; Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 115 (1904). Male in full plumage. Similar to P. taha, from which it differs in being larger, and in having the yellow patch on the sides of the chest smaller, sometimes absent. ‘‘ Iris chestnut; bill black; feet dusky.”’ Total length 5:7 inches, culmen 0:55, wing 2°75, tail 1:75, tarsus 0°75. ¢,18.8.77. Shoa (Antinori). The Abyssinian Yellow-crowned Bishop-bird inhabits North-east Africa. The species can best be distinguished from P. ladoensis, in all its plumages, by its larger size (wing over 2°5 inches), and apparently it replaces that bird to the east of the Nile, in Abyssinia, Shoa and Somaliland. Heuglin discovered the species in the Semien district and named it in 1856 EHuplectes strictos, but it was first described in 1857 by Hartlaub. The type, being in the brown winter plumage, was put aside as undeterminable in the Berlin Museum, until Dr. Reichenow pointed out that from the wing- measurement, viz., 2°64 inches, it must belong to the large form described as Huplectes scioanus by Salvadori (1884). Heuglin met with the species in winter at Lake Tana in Abyssinia and among the highlands of Semien and the surrounding country, where it was resident, and usually seen in parties of from three to eight individuals, frequenting the low bushes and hedges of the pasture-land. In August he saw them in the breeding plumage. In Shoa Antinori found these Bishop-birds apparently breeding at Tuor-Hamesh from June to September, when he procured ten specimens, including the type of Huplectes scio- anus, all of which were males, and Dr. Ragazzi has obtained the species at Sutta. In Southern Abyssinia Mr. Pease collected two males in winter plumage at Ounji in February, 88 PYROMELANA DIADEMATA and remarks that their spring moult takes place in March. His specimens, on account of their large size, I refer to this species, to which certainly belongs P. taha intercedens procured in the Arusi district of Gallaland. Pyromelana diademata. Euplectes diadematus, Fisch. and Reichen. Orn. Centralbl. 1878, p. 264; id. J. f. O. 1878, p. 354, pl. 2, fig. 4 Melinda. Pyromelana diademata, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 236 (1890); Shelley B. Afr. I. No. 345 (1896) ; Reichen. Vog. Afr. ili. p. 117 (1904). Male in breeding plumage. Forehead and front of the crown yellowish scarlet ; remainder of the head and the neck black, like the chest; upper back and scapulars yellow, with dusky brown centres to the feathers ; remainder of the back, upper and under tail-coverts, sides of the abdomen and the vent bright canary yellow; thighs sandy buff; wings and tail dark brown, with pale edges to the feathers, shaded with yellow on the lesser coverts and margins of the quills ; under surface of wings, with the coverts and inner edges of the quills sandy buff. Ivis brown; bill black; tarsi shrimp brown, toes darker. Total length 4:5 inches, culmen 0°45, wing 2°30, tail 1:5, tarsus O°7. g, 14. 6.91. Witu (Jackson). Adult female. Very similar to that of P. franciscana, from which it may generally be distinguished by haying a yellow shade on the edges of the quills and by the bill being slightly shorter and stouter. Wing 2-2. Adult male in winter. Similar in plumage to the female and also with the bill pale horn colour, rather darker brown towards the culmen. The Fire-fronted Bishop-bird inhabits Kast Africa between 6° S. lat. and 1° N. lat., from Pangani to Lake Baringo. Fischer found these birds common in the cornfields near the town of Pangani, and known to the natives at Melinda and on Lamu Island as the ‘* Mbara.” Sir John Kirk collected six specimens in winter plumage at Lamu, which are now in the British Museum, where they were referred to P. ladoensis, which, when in the dull brown plumage, they much resemble in colouring as well as in size ; one of these specimens has a trace of the red frontal patch wrath PYROMELANA NIGRIVENTRIS 89 and all have the bill shorter and stouter than in P. ladoensis, which latter species probably never ranges so far eastward. Mr. Jackson has procured a nearly full plumaged male in the same district at Jipi in September, 1885, where he found these Bishop-birds common in the ricefields, and also at Witu. Further inland he met with the species in full plumage at Teita in April, and plentiful in the long grass at the river Tigrish near Njemps, towards the southern end of Lake Baringo, in July. This is the most northern and western range known to me for the species. Pyromelana nigriventris. Euplectes nigriventris, Cass. Proc. Philad. Acad. 1848, p. 66 Zanzibar ; id. Journ. Philad. 1849, p. 242, pl. 31. Pyromelana nigriventris, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 230 (1890); Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 344 (1896); Nehrkorn, Kat. Hiers, p. 124 (1899) egg ; Reichen. Vog. Afr. iil. p. 125 (1904). Male in breeding plumage. Forehead, crown, back, upper and under tail- coverts and sides of lower abdomen scarlet, the mantle slightly duller and more rufous; wings and tail dark brown, with narrow pale edges to the feathers; under wing-coverts and inner margins of the quill rufous buff; chin, throat, chest and centre of abdomen jet black. ‘‘ Iris brown; bill black ; tarsi and feet brownish flesh colour” (Fischer). Total length 4-2 inches ; culmen 0:5; wing 2:2; tail 0°65. Mtoni (Emin). Female. Upper parts mottled blackish brown, with pale brown edges to the feathers; a broad buff eyebrow ; under parts white, shaded with brown on the sides of throat, lower throat, front and sides of body, and some dark shaft-stripes towards the crop and on the flanks. Male in winter. Similar in plumage to the females. The Black-throated Fire-backed Bishop-bird inhabits Hast Africa between the Zambesi and the Equator, east of 35° EH. long. The most southern range known to me for this species is Quilimane on the Mosambique coast, where Dr. Stuhlmann procured five specimens, so it is apparently abundant in that 90 PYROMELANA FRANCISCANA country. He also collected specimens at Mbusini in Usegua, and at Zanzibar, where it is known to the natives as the * Baniani.” Fischer records it as abundant throughout the coast-countries from Lindi to Lamu. Emin met with it at the Kingani River, and Mr. Jackson at Witu, which is the furthest north that I can trace the species. The type came from Zanzibar, and in this district Fischer procured several nests and eggs. The nest, according to him, much resembles that of P. flammiceps, and is of a lengthened oval shape with the opening at one side, constructed of coarse grass lined with fine grass, and attached, some five or six feet from the ground, to the reeds or thick covert in marshy places. The eggs in a nest are two, or sometimes three, in number; they are pale blue, occasionally spotted with dusky greyish brown, and their average measurement is 0°68 x 0°52. Pyromelana franciscana. Loxia franciscana, Isert, Schrift. Ges. nat. Fr. Berlin, 1789, p. 332, pl. 9. Pyromelana franciscana, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 233 (1890); Butler, Foreign Finches in Captivity, p. 308, pl. 57 (1894); Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 841 (1896); Nehrkorn, Kat. Hiers. p. 124 (1899) egg; Grant, Ibis, 1904, p. 257 Shoa; Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 122 (1904). Euplectes franciscana, Heugl. Orn. N. O. Afr. pl. 48, figs. 4, 5 (1871) eggs. Loxia ignicolor, Vieill. Ois. Chant. p. 92, pl. 59 (1805). Pyromelana franciscana pusilla, Hartert, Bull. B. O. C. xi. p. 71 (1901) L. Stephanie. Male in breeding plumage. Top and sides of head, chest and abdomen velvety black ; neck, back, scapulars, upper tail-coverts, cheeks, chin, throat, under tail-coverts and sides of abdomen scarlet; wings dark brown, with narrow pale brown edges to the feathers, and the under surface tawny buff, with a large portion of the quills dusky brown; thighs tawny buff. “ Iris dark brown; bill black; tarsi and feet brownish flesh-colour.”’ Total length 4:8 inches, culmen 0°45; wing 2:4; taill-4; tarsus0-7. ¢, 22.6.01. Accra. (Alexander). Female. Upper parts mottled, blackish brown, with pale brown edges j PYROMELANA FRANCISCANA 91 to the feathers; a broad buff eyebrow; under parts white, shaded with brown on the sides and lower half of the throat, front and sides of breast ; a few dark brown stripes on the sides of the crop. Iris brown; bill and legs pale brown. Total length 4:2 inches; culmen 0:45; wing 2:3; tail 14; tarsus 0°75. @, 4.3.01. Tadejemulka (Pease). Male in winter. Similar in plumage to the female. In full plumaged males the upper tail coverts reach beyond the end of the tail. The Red-throated Bishop-bird inhabits Northern Tropical Africa between 22° N. lat. and the Equator. The species is fairly abundant throughout its range, which is limited in West Africa to Senegambia and Guinea. From this part of Africa it is well represented in the British Museum by specimens from Senegambia, Gold Coast, and the Volta and Niger Rivers. The spring and autumn moults take place here about April and August, and it breeds during the rainy season. Dr. P. Rendal writes: ‘‘ Builds a woven grass nest and lays two or three eggs of a deeper blue than those of our Hedge Sparrow. The nest has a hole in the side, and is built in a tall weed of the pea family—almost invariably. The males lose their red feathers so gradually that all stages intermediate with the females are to be seen in August.” According to the late Dr. Gordon: ‘‘ Fantee name * Alchim-butukra.’ Have made their appearance since the com- mencement of the rainy season in great abundance in small flocks.” I think he must have overlooked this bird when it was in the brown plumage, for during my visit to the Gold Coast with IT. E. Buckley, we found it to be common in flocks frequenting the more open country in February and March, when the males were all in the brown winter plumage, which closely resembles that of the female. At Accra, in June, Mr. Boyd Alexander found them in full breeding plumage. In the Niger district Forbes met with the species in full plumage in August at Rabba and Abuschi, and according to Dr. Hartert 92 PYROMELANA FRANCISCANA it was very common on the higher ground of the interior, both on the Niger and Benué Rivers, and he took a nest with eggs in September at Kaschia. It is generally distributed over Central and North-east Africa from 22° N. lat. on the Nile (from whence it has been recorded by Heuglin) to the Equator. It is represented in the British Museum by specimens from Uganda, Lado, Redjaf, Fashoda, Senaar, Kordofan, Omdurman, Shendi, Shoa, Southern Abyssinia, Lake Baringo, Eldoma Ravine, and from Somali- land. I can distinguish no local forms and agree with Dr. Bowdler Sharpe (Ibis, 1902, p. 119) that P. franciscana pusilla, Hartert, ‘‘ will not stand, even as a subspecies,” the type of which was procured at Lake Stephanie by Dr. Donaldson Smith, who procured other specimens at Barri in Central Somaliland. Speke met with large flocks of these Bishop-birds in the cornfields of Unyoro, and Dr. Ansorge found them near the Rafu River in that country and at Kibero. Mr. Jackson has procured specimens at Elgeyo in the Kamassia Mountains and at the Kldoma Ravine, which is the most southern range known to me for the species. In this district specimens have been collected by Lord Delamere at Lake Baringo. In Somaliland Mr. Gillett procured the species at Bodeweno, and Mr. Lort Phillips writes: ‘‘ Only plentiful on the Webbe Shebeyli in the cornfields, where it assembles in large flocks of from fifty to one hundred.” In Southern Abyssinia it was also met with in large flocks by Lord Lovat, who shot specimens at Hado, Lake Harar-Meyer and Lake Chercher, and Mr. Pease collected others at Goraboutha, 'ladejemulka and Filwa. These were in the winter dress from December to February, but in the early part of March they began to assume the bright breeding plumage. In Shoa Antinori procured specimens in May and September, Dr. Ragazzi others in April and August, and Mr. Degen met with them therein July. Before — PYROMELANA FRANCISCANA 93 and after the breeding season these Bishop-birds assemble to feed in flocks, at times in company with other Weaver-birds ; but I much doubt their being migratory, as Heuglin suggests ; for, according to his notes, they arrive in North-east Africa in June and July, where he met with them in Takah, Senaar, Kordofan, and Nubia, to as far north as 22° N. lat., and found them very plentiful in the lowlands of Abyssinia up to 7,000 feet. He also mentions them as leaving their winter quar- ters in the Upper White Nile district between October and December. Mr. Hawker met with them in flocks at Fashoda in April. At about the same time of the year Mr. Witherby found them, all in winter plumage, assembled in a considerable flock near the river within a few miles of Khartoum. The Hon. N. C. Rothschild and Mr. Wollaston write: ‘“ This bird frequents the fields of millet or ‘dhurru,’ on the seeds of which it feeds; it is not common at Shendi, but a good many indi- viduals were seen a few miles south, while at Wad-Habushi, about fifty miles south, it was exceedingly abundant.” According to the notes kindly forwarded to me by Mr. A. L. Butler, “This bird is universally known to Europeans in the Soudan as the ‘Dhurra bird,’ and is very abundant at Khartoum and Dongola. The nuptial plumage, out here, lasts from August to January. I met with them in the brown plumage at Gedaref in June, and on my return to the Soudan from Kawa, September 17, 1902, most of the males were in full plumage, though a few were still in transition. The red plumage disappeared in January, having previously lost much of its brightness. I found a pair breeding in a thick Sont-tree near Khartoum, October 20, but the tree was so thorny that I could not reach the nest. The males in the breeding season are a most beautiful sight, dozens of them collecting together on a small patch of green 94 PYROMELANA FRANCISCANA dhurra. They have a pretty habit of rising and hovering with a jerky flight over the sea of glossy green dhurra blades, with their feathers puffed out until they look like balls of scarlet and black velvet; this action being accom- panied with a loud ‘purr-rr-purr-rr’ of the wings. They nearly always puff themselves out in this manner when approaching a female. I have seen beautiful head-dresses made out of their plumage by natives of the Upper White Nile, the black and scarlet feathers being set alternately in broad rings.” With regard to the moult in captivity, Dr. A. G. Butler purchased one autumn five males of P. franciscana and six of P. afra, and writes: ‘All these birds continued to develop their nuptial plumage up to the first frosts, when the change was arrested and the bright colouring gradually receded from the feathers, so that in about six weeks the birds had all resumed their winter plumage. «Several views have been put forward to account for the change of plumage in birds, but when the colouring gradually comes and again recedes from the same feathers, the casting of a disguising film will not account for the second operation. “In Pyromelana the change of plumage is very slow; the feathers daily gain in intensity, the pale buff of the under parts getting scarcely perceptibly deeper, until at length the velvet black and the fiery orange in P. franciscana appear as mere spots or shaft-streaks, which gradually expand fan-wise towards the outer fringes of the feathers. This spotting, however, is very uneven, some feathers being developed in advance of others, so as to give the bird a very patchy appearance. In the bright yellow and black plumage of P. afra this is even more noticeable. “ At the change of plumage the flank-feathers and upper tail-coverts are moulted out, being replaced by long soft PYROMELANA ORIX 95 feathers, which droop over and almost hide the tail; but none of the feathers of the head, back, breast and belly are lost, they simply undergo a gradual change of colour.” The late Mr. J. H. Gurney, in 1882, gives an interesting account of a specimen of P. franciscana he had as a cage-bird, which, in 1880, acquired its gorgeous breeding dress fully and completely, but when this was lost it was exchanged for a decidedly melanistic one. In the following year it again assumed the ordinary bright breeding plumage without any abnormal coloration, but on losing it, once more became melanistic. —Enrvle ct. Pyromelana orix. Emberiza orix, Linn. 8. N. (x.) p. 177 (1758); 8S. N. (xii.) i. p. 309 (1766). Pyromelana orix, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 230 (1890); Butler, Foreign Finches in Captivity, p. 304, pl. 56 (1894); Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 343 (1896); Whitehead, Ibis, 1903, p. 224 Orange R.; Shortridge, Ibis, 1904, p. 178 Pondoland ; Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 120 (1904). Euplectes pseudoryx, Reichenb. Singv. p. 56, figs. 200, 202 (1863). EKuplectes edwardsi, Reichenb. t. c. p. 57. Male in breeding plumage. General plumage vermilion, of a slightly duller and more rufous shade on the mantle; scapulars with broad angular blackish centres; front two-thirds of crown, sides of head, chin, upper throat, chest and middle of abdomen black; wings and tail dark brown, with narrow pale edges to the feathers ; under wing-coverts, inner margins of the quills and the thighs rufous buff. “Iris dark brown; bill black; legs light brown.” Total length 5:1 inches, culmen 0-6, wing 3:0, tail 1-7, tarsus 0°8. Transvaal (T. E. Buckley). Female. Upper parts mottled blackish brown, with pale brown edges to the feathers ; a broad buff eyebrow ; under parts white, shaded with brown on the sides and lower half of the throat, and front and sides of body, most of which feathers have obscure darker shaft-stripes. Wing 2°65." 9, 18.6. 81. Neweastle (H. A. Butler). Adult male in winter. Similar to the female, but with the stripes on the throat and hody more strongly marked, Wing 2°75. g, 21. 7. 75. Lower Umgeni R. (T. L, Ayres). 96 PYROMELANA ORIX The Cape Red Bishop-bird ranges from Angola and the Limpopo River to the Cape of Good Hope. In the Lisbon Museum there is a specimen labelled * Angola (Toulson),” and several from Catumbella, Capan- gombe, Huilla and Humbe, collected by Anchieta, who informs us that it is known to the natives at Catumbella as the “ Quisengo.” In Western South Africa, according to Andersson, “This very handsome bird is abundant at Lake Ngami and in Ondonga, and though rarer in Damara and Great Namaqualand, it is found in those countries also, con- eregating in small communities and frequenting moist situa- tions, where it breeds in January and February. “Tn Ondonga its nest may be found in those months in almost every palm bush; the nest is very pretty, airy and graceful, somewhat oval in form, and composed of threads torn from the edges of the branches of young palms. Some nests are thickly lined, whilst others are quite bare within; in the latter the eggs may be seen from the outside; but not- withstanding the seeming looseness with which the threads are interwoven, the apparently frail structure is in reality very strong. The eggs are of a bluish colour, and from three to four in number.” In the British Museum the species is represented by specimens from the Kuil River in Cape Colony, Eland’s Post, Bloemfontein, the Umgeni River near Durban, Weenen, Maritzburg and Potchefstroom ; the other specimens referred to this species in the “Catalogue of Birds,” all belong to P. sundevalli. According to Layard, it confines itself to certain favourite spots, and near Cape Town the only place known to him for it was the swampy ground near the Royal Observatory; but he calls |it not an uncommon bird throughout Cape Colony, and Mr. Barratt found it similarly distributed over the Orange PYROMELANA ORIX 97 River Colony to Pretoria in the Transvaal. In Natal Butler, Feilden and Reid found it to be common, and also universally distributed. Specimens of the male bird were obtained in all stages of transition from winter to summer plumage in October and November. They were found breeding in considerable numbers along the reedy streams near Maritzburg; some of the nests contained eggs and others young birds in December, and on returning to the same place in the following March they were again breeding, evidently for a second time. ‘The nests are constructed of grasses, domed, with a side entrance, and usually placed among reeds, on the stems of which they are formed, about four or five feet from the ground-level, and at the water’s edge.” Stark remarked that the brilliancy and depth of colour of the plumage of the males in summer increases with age. It is seldom found at any great distance from marshy ground or the reed-overgrown borders of vleis or rivers. It appears to be a resident in the localities in which it occurs. In winter these birds assemble in flocks, sometimes numbering thousands of individuals, and frequently feed in company with other Finches on seeds and grain. At night they roost in extensive reed-beds or among bushes. In summer the cocks may be seen slowly gliding over the reed-beds with a curious hovering flight, during which the body is kept very erect, the plumage of the lower back puffed out, while that of the neck is erected into a frill, looking, in the blazing sunshine, like flames of fire slowly drifting to and fro. At times they dance about in front of the females with puffed-out plumes, turning from side to side, as if to show off the full beauty of their plumage. “The eggs, four or five in number, are somewhat pyriform in shape and of a uniform pale greenish blue colour. They average 0°82 x 0:60. The female sits for fourteen days. ‘he young are at first fed on small caterpillars and other insects, including the larvee of mosquitoes.” [October, 1904, 7 98 PYROMELANA SUNDEVALLI Pyromelana sundevalli. Euplectes sundevalli, Bp. Consp. i. p. 446 (1850) S. Afr. Pyromelana sundevalli, Alexander, Ibis, 1899, p. 567 Zambesi. Pyromelana nigrifrons, Bohm, J. f. O. 1884, p. 177; 1886, pl. 2, fig. 2 Karema; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 233 (1890); Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 342 (1896) ; Reichen. Vog. Afr. ili. p. 122 (1904). Pyromelana oryx (non Linn.), Sharpe, Ibis, 1900, p. 110 Mapicuti ; Marshall, t. c. p. 241 Mashona. Male in breeding plumage. General colour bright scarlet, of a duller and more rufous shade on the mantle; scapulars with broad angular blackish centres ; the black of the head is restricted to the front half of the crown, sides of head, sides, and occasionally the centre of the chin; chest and middle of abdomen black ; wings and tail dark brown, with narrow pale edges to the feathers ; under wing-coverts, inner margins of the quills, and the thighs rufous butf. Ivis dark brown; bill black; legs light brown. Total length 4:7 inches, culmen 0:5, wing 2:5, tail 1:5, tarsus 0°75. Zambesi (Kirk). Females and males in winter. Similar to those of P. franciscana. Wing 2:5. 9, 18. 1.99, Zumbo (Alexander); ¢g, Cheringoma District (Cavendish). The Red Bishop-bird inhabits Eastern Africa between the Limpopo River and Victoria Nyanza. The type was from~ Wahlberg’s collection, labelled “ Caffraria,” and was described by Bonaparte as similar to P. orix, but smaller. The most southern range known to me for the species is Mapicuti in the Cheringoma district near Beira, in about 20° 8. lat., where it has been procured by Mr. Cavendish. A specimen obtained by the late Mr. F. Oates, at Hope Fontein near Gulubeweyo, is in the British Museum, and belongs to this species, so that this is doubtless the form met with in Mashonaland, where, according to Mr. Guy Marshall, it is “very local, but plentiful wherever large reed-beds are found. There are few prettier sights than the male in his courting flight, floating with feathers puffed up and quivering wings eee | i PYROMELANA SUNDEVALLI 99 over the green reeds, a living ball of black and scarlet plush. The stomach contained seeds, small beetles, and an occasional spider.” Sir John Kirk, during the Livingstone Expedition, collected a number of these birds at the Zambesi, and wrote: ‘‘ The nests of the different Huplectes are found in colonies, hanging from the extremities of the branches of such trees as the Acacia, having delicate twigs; a position overhanging water is usually chosen. The nest is commonly suspended by a long peduncle of the same material. The opening is tubular and directed downwards. Besides breeding-nests, there are generally a number of a different construction in which the birds may rest. These frequently have two openings, or consist of a ring of woven grass.” Mr. Boyd Alexander, during his journey up the Zam- besi, procured a good series, including one from the Rufue River, which is the most western range known for the species. With regard to its habits he writes: ‘This is the most plentiful of all the Weavers, being common everywhere, and it appears to be equally at home among the huts of a native village, in reed-beds, or in thick woods. Throughout the greater portion of the year it is found in large flocks, whose numbers increase at times of feeding, in the morning and evening. With them safety lies in numbers, since they are constantly being preyed upon by Hawks (Accipiter minullus) and the Black-shouldered Kite (Hlanus cxruleus) during the daytime, and the Red-legged Gos-hawk (Melierux gabar) in the evening, when they resort to the reed-beds for the night. When a flock travels over a region where an attack is likely a strong and rapid flight close to the ground is resorted to; but they do not always get off scot-free, for I have more than once seen a flock completely routed and one of their number borne away. In one locality the flocks are often considerable, 100 PYROMELANA SUNDEVALLI and there is no better time to estimate their numbers than towards evening, when they journey to the reed-beds. An accustomed track is always taken; flock after flock will go ‘swishing’ past in almost bewildering succession to some reed-bed ahead, into which they pitch like so many showers of bullets. Soon among the green cover of the fish-cane there will be hosts of Weavers making great chatterings, and when there is a pool close by they travel to the confines of the fish- cane and commence to drop down to the water to take their last drink for the night, a continuous string of birds circling down and up without interruption, like an endless chain on a wheel. Itis a pretty sight. There is neither bickering nor quarrel, each bird has a chance to dip its beak into the water, and only when the last bird leaves the pool does the chattering or singing within the reed-beds cease. Then the confused rustling of innumerable wings takes place, telling the observer that these large flocks are retiring into the depths of the green cover for the night. From the winter plumage to the brilliant summer-dress the change is slow, and during this period all stages of plumage may be observed, which impart to a flock a very mottled and curious appearance. By the end of January the males have completely assumed their remarkable breeding-dress, but their numbers are small compared with the females and the birds of the previous season, who still keep the brown plumage, and the flock that awhile back was nothing more than a study in brown becomes glorious with the gorgeous liveries of the male birds. It is a sight worth seeing to behold a flock go past you, twisting and turning in the bright sunlight across the wide mealie-fields, bristling with the fresh green blades, then on to the dark green cover of a reed-bed, whose lowest depths they penetrate and fill with a soft, confused chattering, for all the world like a fugue in monotone, while now and again the males climb to the top PYROMELANA WERTHERI 101 of the tallest reeds, their look-out posts, and the setting sun glancing on their plumage seems to turn each reed-head into a brilliant ruby.” In the Nyasa district the species has been met with by Sir John Kirk and Dr. P. Rendall in the Shiré Valley. Mr. Whyte procured several males in breeding plumage in February at Mpimbi, and found them in winter plumage at Zomba in July and September. At Karema, on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, Bohm procured the type of P. nigrifrons and found the species abundant in the Kawendi country, often in company with P. vanthomelas dotting the high grass with their bright breeding plumage. Fischer obtained P. swndevalli at Kagehi on Speke’s Gulf. Pyromelana wertheri. Pyromelana wertheri, Reichen. Orn. Monatsh. 1897, p. 160 Wembere ; id. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 122 (1904). Pyromelana nigrifrons, Hartert, Nov. Zool. 1900, p. 41 Kasesi, Fort George. Male in breeding plumage. Very like P. sundevalli, differing only in the red parts being paler and of a more orange shade. Forehead, front of crown and sides of head black; chin mottled with black; remainder of the head and the neck scarlet shaded ochreous buff, the feathers fading into white towards the base and slightly mottled with bright scarlet at their ends; hinder neck and mantle yellowish rufous, passing into scarlet shaded orange on the lower back and upper tail-coverts; a few black shaft-stripes on the scapulars ; wings and tail blackish brown, with pale brown edges to the feathers ; under wing-coverts and inner edges of the quills isabelline buff ; chest and centre of abdomen velvety black; sides of abdomen, thighs and under tail-coverts tawny buff washed with reddish orange. Total length 48 inches, culmen 0-55, wing 2'8, tail 1:7, tarsus 0°8. Toro (Jackson). Werther’s Bishop-bird inhabits the Victoria Nyanza district. In the Wembere district of Central German East Africa Lieut. Werther obtained the type. A similar example 102 PYROMELANA FRIEDERICHSENI has been obtained by Mr. Jackson at Toro during the return journey from the Ruwenzori Mountains to Victoria Nyanza, and specimens have been obtained by Dr. Ansorge at Kasesi in Toru and at Fort George on the Albert Nyanza, which have been referred to the last species by Mr. Hartert, so P. werthert is possibly only a pale variety of P. sundevalli, but two full plumaged males procured by the late W.G. Doggett in Uganda have yellowish rufous mantles, which is perhaps the most constant character for this species. Pyromelana friederichseni. Euplectes friederichseni, Fisch. and Reichen. J. f. O. 1884, p. 54 Nguruman. Pyromelana friederichseni, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 235 (1890); Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 839 (1896); Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 117 (1904). Type. Front half of the head, ear-coverts and upper half of the throat uniform black like the chest; hinder half of head, neck, back and lower throat fire-red ; wings, upper tail-coverts and tail black, with pale brown edges to the feathers; under wing-coverts, thighs, vent and under tail- coyerts isabelline. Iris brown; bill black; tarsi and feet horny brown. Total length 6 inches, culmen 0°6, wing 3:2, tail 25, tarsus0'9. ¢, 24. 6. 83. Nguruman (Fischer). Friederichsen’s Red Bishop-bird inhabits Masailand. The species is, I believe, known only by two specimens, the type discovered by Fischer at Nguruman in Masailand, about 2° 8. lat., 36° 20’ E. long., and a specimen recorded by M. Oustalet from Bouré near Witu. Pyromelana ansorgei. Pyromelana ansorgei, Hartert in Ansorge’s Under Afr. Sun. p. 344, pl. 2, fig. 2 (1899) Masindi ; Reichen. Vog. Afr. ii. p. 117 (1904). Pyromelana xanthochlamys, Sharpe, Bull. B. O. C. xiii. p. 10 (1902) Hoima. PYROMELANA GIEROWI 103 Type. General plumage jet black; hinder half of the crown and the neck orange red, fading into yellowon the front half of the interscapular region ; some brownish buff edges to the feathers of the scapulars, lower back, wing and tail (remains of the winter plumage, these parts being entirely black in the type of P. zanthochlamys, Sharpe). The black throat extends nearly to the crop, and has the lower half compressed by the orange red of the neck, which extends across only the lower throat and crop ; abdomen and under tail-coverts mottled, with brownish buff edges to the feathers; under surface of wings jet black, with a trace of brown on the axillaries and inner coverts. Ivis brown; bill black, inclining to brown on the under part of the lower mandible; tarsi and feet deep reddish brown. ‘Total length 5:9 inches, culmen 0:65, wing 3-4, tail 2:5, tarsus 1:0. ¢,17. 6.97. Masindiin Unyoro (Ansorge). Ansorge’s Bishop-bird inhabits the Equatorial Lake district to the north-west of Victoria Nyanza. The type of the species, a male in breeding plumage, was discovered by Dr. Ansorge in June, 1897, at Masindi in Unyoro.