288 BULLETIN ;■)(), UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



the suborbital and part of auricular region similar but more orange; 

 under parts i)ale gray, the abdomen buffy white, sometimes passing 

 on lower portion and anal region into pale orange or salmon color; 

 bill light colored (orange-red or scarlet in life); legs and feet dark 

 horn color or brownish dusky; length (skins), 91-97 (94); wing, 

 44.5-45.5 (45); tail, 42.5-45 (43.5); exposed culmen, 8.5-9 (8.7); 

 tarsus, 14; middle toe, 10.5-11 (1().8).« 



Adult female. — "Top and sides of head drab gray, paler than in the 

 male; rest of upper parts like the male; no orange on side of head; 

 under parts showing a pale orange-yellow tinge."'' 



Young. — Above plain brown, as in adults, but pileum concolor 

 with back, or nearly so; upper tail-coverts dull red or brownish red; 

 lores and ()r})its pale orange, the auricular region tinged with the 

 same; under parts as in adults but paler, with sides and flanks 

 strongly tinged with brownish buffy. 



Western Africa, from Senegambia to Angola. Introduced and 

 naturalized in Porto Rico. 



FringUla mdpoda Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat., xii, 1817, 177 (based on 

 Bengali a j ones Oranges Vieillot, Ois. Chant., 1805, 2(), pi. 7). 



E[strelda] melpoda Gray, Gen. Birds, ii, 1849, 369. 



[Estrelda] vielpoda Bonaparte, Consp. Av., i, 1850, 4()0. 



Estrelda inelpoda Hartlaub, Orn. West-Afr., 1857, 141. — Cassin, Proc. Ac. Nat. 

 Sci.Philad.,1859,138.— Heine, Journ. fur Orn., 1860, 141.— HARTLAUB,Journ. 

 fiir. Orn., 1861, 258.— Sharpe, Ibis, 1870, 482.— Shelley and Buckley, Ibis, 

 1872, 290. — Reichenow, Journ. fiir Orn., 1875, 41. — Sharpe and Bouvier, 

 Bull. Soc. Zool. France, iii, 1878, 76. — Oustalet, Nouv. Arch. Mus. (2), ii, 

 1879, Bull., p. 112.— BocAGE, Orn. Angola, 1881, 358.— Forbe.s, Ibis, 1883, 

 510.— Shelley, Ibis, 1883, 565; 1886, 382.— Buttikofer, Notes Leyden 

 Mus., viii, 1886, 260. 



H[abropygd] vielpoda Cabanis, Mus. Hein., i, Aug. 1851, ]()9, footnote. 



Habropyga melpoda Cabanis, Journ. fiir Orn., 1885, 464, in text (Angola). — 

 Sharpe, Cat. Afr. Birds, 1871, 66.— Gundlach, Journ. fur Orn., 1878, 160, 174 

 (Porto Rico; habits); Anal. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat., vii, 1878, 206 (Porto Rico; 

 introduced). — Reichenow, .lourn. fiir Orn., 1887,301. — Cory, Auk, iii, 1886, 

 214; Birds West Ind., 1889, 101 (Porto Rico; introduced); Cat. West Ind. 

 Birds, 1892, 113. 



[Habropyga] melpoda Cory, List Birds West Ind., 1885, 13. 



[Estrilda] melpoda Gray, Hand-list., ii, 1870, 51, no. 6702. 



Estrilda melpoda Allen,- Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, v, 1880, 121, in (ext (Porto Rico). 



Sporxginthus melpodus Sharpe, Cat. Birds. Brit. Mus., xiii, 1890, 325. 



Sporseginthns melpoda Bowdish, Auk, xx, 1893, 13 (Porto Rico). 



Melpoda lippa Reichenbach, Singvogel, 1861, 26, pi. 7, figs. 62-64 (ex FringUla 

 lippa Lichtenstein, manuscript). 



o Three specimens — one from Liberia, two from Porto Rico. 

 bCoij, Auk, iii, 1886, 214; Birds West Ind., p. 101. 



