420 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



the material available for study. A breeding male from Nairobi has 

 the head and throat slightly lighter, more scarlet, less crimson, than 

 birds from farther west, but the difference is very small. 



The birds of Urundi and the northern end of Lake Tanganyika 

 may prove to be separable. I have seen 12 adults from there and they 

 are very dark above. The dorsal streaks are more blackish, less 

 brownish, than in East African specimens of cardinalls. 



Nothing is known of the breeding season of this race, but the nomi- 

 nate form has been found nesting in May and June at Nairobi and 

 in the Trans-nzoia. In the latter area Granvik^^ found 20 nests on 

 June 6. 



EUPLECTES HORDEACEA CRASPEDOPTERA (Bonaparte) 



Ploceus craspedopterus Bonapaete, Conspectus generum avium, vol. 1, p. 446, 



1850: Abyssinia. 

 Specimens collected : 19 adult males, 1 juveual male, 12 adult females. Gate 



River near Gardula, Ethiopia, April 22'-May 11, 1912. 



Soft parts : Adult male — feet and claws dark brown ; bill black. 

 Juvenal male — iris brown ; bill olive-brown on all of maxilla and ex- 

 treme tip of mandible, rest of mandible flesh color; feet and claws 

 brown. Adult female — iris brown ; bill olive-brown above, horn-color 

 below ; feet and claws iBiesh-brown. 



Pyromela'iia flammiceps rothschildi Neumann ^^ apparently is a 

 straight synonym of craspedoptera. Wlien describing rothschildi^ 

 Neumann compared it with sylvatica and the nominate form, but 

 overlooked Bonaparte's name. 



The distribution of the fire-crowned bishop is peculiar in that 

 while the bird occurs in the Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, and the narrow 

 coastal belt of Kenya Colony, and southward, it is entirely wanting 

 in the interior of Kenya Colony. 



In the present stud}^ I have examined about 100 specimens of all 

 four races of this weaver, including the tyjje of changamwensis^ and 

 I find the distributional summaries given by Sclater*" to hold in 

 general, but to need some emendation. The present subspecies occurs 

 in the southwestern part of Ethiopia (the Shoan Lakes region, KuUo, 

 and Omo areas), northern Uganda, and the eastern Sudan. 



Ogilvie-Grant "^ revived Bonaparte's name craspedopterus for the 

 Abyssinian bird because of its having the under tail-coverts white, 

 often with black centers. Neumann used the character of the broader 

 black frontal band in separating Ethiopian birds under the name 

 rothschildi. Sclater and Mackworth-Praed "^ extended the range of 



Esjourn. fill- Orn., 1923, Sonderheft, p. 166. 



»» Journ. fiir Orn., 1907, p. 596 : Lake Abaya. 



"o Systema avium iEthiopicarum, pt. 2, p. 760, 1930. 



"Ibis, 1913, pp. 564-565. 



«= Ibis, 1918, pp. 450-457. 



