90 V.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 223 



Blue Widow Bird 



Vidua hypocherina J. and E. Verreau ^^ 



Plate 7 



Distribution 



The blue widow bird is widely distributed but rather local in the 

 drier bushveld country of eastern Africa from Ethiopia (from Shoa- 

 Hawash, Addis Ababa, Ourso, east to Harar, and south through the 

 Arussi-GaUaland and Boran areas) /^ British Somaliland (Hargeisa, 

 Arabsiyo, Daboloc), Italian Somaliland (Wante and El Uak in 

 Jubaland), Kenya (chiefly in the northern and eastern parts of the 

 country, not in the highlands; Doinyo Narok, Tsavo, Voi, Bura, 

 Mwatate, Lake Jipe, Marsabit, TurkweU River, Tana River, Isciolo, 

 Serenli, Odda, Mackinnon Road, Nguruman, Easumu), Uganda 

 (Karamoja in the northeast and Buddu on the west shore of Lake 

 Victoria) south to central Tanganyika (slopes of Kilimanjaro, Moschi, 

 Makamija in Usambara, Kipera, Kilosa, Dodoma, Morogoro, Dar-es- 

 Salaam, Ngumumova, Kiparaja, Useguha, and Ugogo), 



The altitudinal range of this bird is from sea level (Dar-es-Salaam) 

 to about 4,500 feet. It is not generally recorded above 4,500 feet in 

 Kenya and Tanganyika. Its ecological and geographical distribu- 

 tion from Ethiopia to central Tanganyika corresponds fairly close 

 to that of the straw- tailed widow bird (Vidua fischeri), but the 

 latter has been also reported (but not collected) a little farther west, 

 in the southeastern part of the Sudan, not far from the Uganda 

 border. Because of its discontinuous, spotty distribution, the blue 

 widow bird is often missed by naturahsts. When I was in Kenya, 

 I made many special searches for it but found it in only a few places — 

 in the low hiUs between Bura and Mwatate, at Voi and at Tsavo — 

 always in thorny Acacia tangles. 



When first described, this species was thought to occiu* in Upper 

 Guinea (Casamanse and Gambia), but this belief has long since been 

 proved to be false. 



Breeding Season 



There is no reason to assume that the blue widow bird is migratory 

 even on a small scale. Its breeding range should therefore coincide 



" Vidua hypocherina J. and E. Verreau, Rev. Mag. Zool., 185C, p. 200, pi. 165 (West Africa, probably East 

 Africa) . 



'» The record from Dangila, In northwestern Ethiopia, of Cheesman and Sclater (1936, p. 194) Is in error; 

 the specimen is actually Vidua chalybeata ultramarina. For checlJ:lng this specimen and correcting the 

 Identification, I am obligated to J. D. Macdonald. 



