( 73) 



23. Pyromelana nigrifi'ons Bohm. 

 (Of. -/./. Orn. 1884, p. 177; Cat. B. Brit. Mus. XIII. p. 233.) 

 One cadult male, shot on March 6th on the Upper Shire River. Professor 

 Reichenow has kindly compared this bird with the type of P. nigrifrons in the 

 Berlin Museum, and found that my specimen entirely agrees with it, e.xcept that the 

 black baud on the forehead is a little wider. The wings also seem 2 mm. shorter, 

 but this is of no importance, as they are distinctly abraded. As they are, I measure 

 them as being <i5 mm. long. " Tlie iris is dark brown; legs and feet very light 

 horn-colour; Itill black." 



24. Plocepasser pectoralis (Peters). 



September 14th and 22nd, Monkey Bay. " Bill dark horn-colour, almost black; 

 iris grey-brown; legs dull brown; feet a little darker." 



25. Hyphantornis xanthoptems Fiusch & Hartl. 



March 5th, Upper ShirS River; also Jnne. $ ad. "Iris dull orange-brown; 

 bill black; legs and feet dull pinkish biscuit-colour. Crop contained seeds and a 

 few insect remains." 



A great number of eggs of these birds, which are not yet described as far as I 

 know, vary enormously. Some are of a pale liver-brown, almost of a faded brick- 

 colour, unspotted ; others bluish green, unspotted, almost like a somewhat large 

 rather elongate<l and jiointed e^g'g of Erithacm phoenicurus; others are reddish white, 

 all over spotted with purplish brown ; others again similar, but the ground-colour 

 more bluish white, the spots and patches larger, rufous brown, thus closely resembling 

 an egg of a Pycnonotm ; others again are blue-green, spotted witli pale greyish 

 brown. 



The stupendous variations in coloration of many of the species of Hypliantornis 

 are well known (cf. -Tourn. f. Ornith. 1895, pp. 332-335). I found the same in a 

 colony of Weaver-birds on the Benue, where, however, the eggs in the same nest were 

 always similar to each other; and that is no doubt, I think, always the case. My 

 observations were not published, as I did not procure the parent bird, or, rather, 

 lost it while lying ill of fever in a boat. 



26. Lamprocolius sycobius (Licht.). 

 June, Upper Shirfi River. 



27. CorvTis scapulatus Dand. 



S. July 30th, Upper Shir^ River. 



Sharpe, Milne-Edwards & Grandidier, Shelley, and others have united the white- 

 breasted Crows of Africa with those of Madagascar. It seems to me, however, that 

 in the skins from Africa the white patch above is'wider in extent, reaching farther 

 towards the head; in fact, in a skin shot by Mr. W. L. Distant at Pretoria, the 

 white reaches almost up to the nape, while in specimens from Madagascar all the 

 feathers of the hind-neck are black, so that a narrower band of white remains 

 just at the end of the hind-neck. Large series of well-prepared skins will be 

 necessarv to decide whether this is a constant character or not. 



