PARASITIC WEAVE RBIRDS 69 



Kenya, and north of the equatorial forest from Gambia, Portuguese 

 Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, northern Cameroons, to the 

 Darfur and Balir-el-Jebel areas of Sudan, the Uelle District of the 

 extreme northeastern Belgian Congo, and to northern Ethiopia 

 (Gallabat, Machigay, Gondar). The nominate race is the southern 

 portion of the species, and ranges north as far as southern Angola, the 

 Lundazi region of Northern Rhodesia and in eastern Africa north 

 tlu'ough Mozambique, Nyasaland, and eastern Tanganyika to the 

 coastal belt of Kenya (Malindi). The rest of the range given above 

 for the species is occupied by the subspecies ni(jeriae. 



In parts of its range, this species, or at least its northern races, 

 may be locally migratory. Thus, in the Uelle District, northeastern 

 Belgian Congo, Chapin (1954, p. 571) found it present only from 

 September to January, during which time it apparently bred there, 

 He concluded that it probably spends the remaining months to the 

 north in the Sudan. How far north is not known, but in the part of 

 the Sudan immediately north of the Uelle, the Bahr-el-Ghazal, it is 

 as yet unreported. Still farther north, in the Darfur Province, Lynes 

 (1924, p. 670) recorded it as arriving in mid-September to breed, 

 apparently very much like the situation Chapin found a little farther 

 south. Lynes, however, considered the arrival as "merely indicating 

 the cessation of off-season rovings, not an immigration." Elsewhere 

 in its range the glossy combassou has not been recorded as seasonal 

 except in a very loose Vf&y, which probably indicates insufficient 

 observation rather than actual movements of the bu'ds. As an 

 example of such inconclusive reporting, I cite Priest (1936, p. 350), who 

 wrote that in Southern Rhodesia, "it seems as if it is a migrant to us 

 in the rains." 



Everywhere throughout its range, the glossy combassou is a denizen 

 of the tree-dotted grassy savannas and of bushy growths, but does 

 not occur in forested areas or in very arid regions. It frequents the 

 vicinit}^ of native villages, but does not seem to come into them, and 

 feeds on the ground in small, loose flocks in the patches of cleared 

 and cultivated land immediately adjacent to them. It is often seen 

 along roads in bushy areas, where the sides of the more open spaces 

 of the pathway's offer it the edge vegetation that it likes. Its recorded 

 altitudinal range is from close to sea level up to 7,000 feet. 



Breeding Season 



The follo^\'ing are the pertinent data as to the time of breeding of 

 the glossy combassou in various parts of its range: 



Sierra Leone: Northern Koinadugu, November, "obviously their breeding 

 season" (Serle, 1949, p. 125), a statement based on the fact that the males were 

 in nuptial plumage and were in full song; however, there are no actual breed- 

 ing records. 



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