68 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 223 



picks up and carries nesting materials, even though observed as yet 

 only in captive aviary birds, give a small but welcome ray of light on 

 the possible habits of the remote, ancestral condition from which 

 these birds have deviated with the advent and development of the 

 parasitic mode of reproduction. 



Aside from the question of parasitic versus nonparasitic breeding, 

 avicultural observations have yielded the following more or less dis- 

 connected items about these birds* 



Plimiage changes: Like the long-tailed widow birds, the short- 

 tailed species do not seem to acquire complete nuptial plumage in their 

 first year. A. G. Butler (1899, p. 265) found that in the first year the 

 young males only partly assumed the nuptial black plumage, and 

 became dappled in appearance. Mackworth-Praed and Grant (1955, 

 p. 1041) wrote that Vidia chalybeata uLtramarina often breeds in im- 

 mature plumage, but I am not aware of any evidence to support this 

 statement. 



Longevity: A glossy combassou lived for 10 years in an aviary, a 

 longevity of considerable duration for so small a passerine bird (Schor- 

 kopf, 1937, p. 455). Another glossy combassou of unrecorded age 

 when acquired lived for 5 years in captivity (Reimann, 1937, p. 159). 

 Still another is recorded as surviving for 10 years, 4 months in captivity 

 (Mitchell, 1911, p. 476). 



Clutch size: The number of eggs laid in one season (one clutch or 

 more) by one hen is not known, but the following figures of egg laying 

 by captive birds may give something of an indication. Steinmetz 

 (1937, pp. 352-354) recorded four eggs from a combassou in the Berlin 

 Zoo. Russ (1884, pp. 175-176) noted five eggs for his bird. Boyd 

 noted (1914, p. 338) three eggs for her individual. 



Brown- Winged Glossy Combassou 



Vidua amauropteryx (Sharpe) 



Distribution 



The glossy combassou, here understood as comprising only two 

 races, V.a. amauropteryx and V.a. nigeriae (of which camerunensis is 

 a synonym), ranges from western Transvaal,®^ Bechuanaland, and 

 Damaraland, north to Alatabeleland, across eastern and central 

 Northern Rhodesia (from Livingstone to the Kafue River and west 

 to Mapanza) and Nyasaland, north to southern Angola, the Kasai 

 District of the Belgian Congo (Kwamouth to Luluabourg and the 

 Lorn ami district), Mozambique, Tanganyika, along the coast to 



" Although this combassou has not been collected southeast of western Transvaal, Walker (1932) saw a 

 red-billed combassou as well as the common white-billed combassou, V.funerea, In the eastern Cape Prov 

 ince (Queenstown and the Kel Valley). The red-billed combassou was probably V. amauropteryx. Fur- 

 ther observations are needed to establish the southern limits of its range. 



