Check List of the Birds of South Africa. 369 



washed with claret-red, with a few fine white spots on the breast, 

 under-tail coverts ochre-brown. The specimen from the Victoria 

 Falls is a young bird and just shows the red feathers commencing to 

 appear on the throat ; the iris is dark brown, the bill red with a black 

 line along the culmen, the legs brown. It was shot on October 17th. 

 Capt. Shelley has recently referred this bird to the genus Hypanjus 

 which he distinguishes from Lagonosticta by the absence of the 

 peculiar shaped first long primary ; he has also renamed it H. 

 harterti as he also refers Estrilda nitidida(TLzxi\., Ibis, 1865, p. 269), 

 a quite different species, to the same genus Hy par (jus. 



52. ESTEILDA ASTBILDA (Liim.). 



Eeichenow (Vog. Afr. iii. p. 176) distinguishes some seven geo- 

 graphical subspecies of the widely distributed Eooibekje. Of these 

 three are found within our limits, viz., Estrilda astrilda typica from 

 South Africa generally, including Cape Colony, Natal, Orange Eiver 

 Colony, and the Transvaal ; Estrilda astrilda cavendishi, darker in 

 colour with leaden brown head, from Southern Mozambique ; 

 Estrilda astrilda damarensis, paler than the type from German South- 

 West Africa. 



55. ESTKILDA ANGOLENSIS (Lillll.). 



Eeichenow (Vog. Afr. iii. p. 102) separates as a subspecies from 

 Estrilda angolensis typica, a paler variety, E. angolensis damarensis 

 from Damaraland and the Kalahari. 



57. ESTEILDA CLARKEI (Shelley). 



Shelley (Bull B.O.C. xiii. p. 75, 1903) separates the Southern 

 form of the Orange-breasted Waxbill from south of the Equator from 

 that in other parts of Africa ; the latter retains the old name, the 

 former becomes Estrilda clarkei. This new species is distinguished 

 by its paler yellow colour, only the crop being washed with orange. 



63. PHILJETEKUS socius (Lath.). 



Eeichenow (Vog. Afr. iii. p. 242) places this bird among the true 

 Fringillidce close to Passer, as the first primary is absent. In the 

 two examples I have been able to examine this is certainly the case 

 as far as can be seen without injuring the specimens, but it must be 

 remembered that traces of the first primary can be found in many of 

 the so-called nine-quillecl Passeres, and the distinction between the 

 two families (F ring ill id a and PloceidcB) is by no means a funda- 

 mental one. 



