PARASITIC WEAVERBIRDS 107 



they considered as probably those of a parasite. Considering that 

 this record was made when A. Roberts first demonstrated that the 

 pintail is a brood parasite, the caution of the above authors is under- 

 standable. Probably their record refers to the pintail. 



Black -bellied fire finch: Estrilda rara (Antinori) " 



Myers reported (m Bannerman, 1949, p. 38G) finding a nest of this 

 finch near Kagelu, Equatoria Province, Sudan, in November. It 

 contained three well incubated eggs of the host and two fresh ones, 

 "which may belong to Vidua macroura which is very common here." 

 Wliile not improbable, this record must be looked upon as uncertain. 



Red-bellied fire finch: Estrilda senegala (Linnaeus) ^* 



At least three races of tliis finch have been recorded as victims of 

 the pintail: E. s. rendalli, kikuyuensis, and ruberrima.^^ The data 

 are as follows: In Kenya and Uganda, Jackson (1938, pp. 1525-1528) 

 wrote that he and his native assistant, Baraka, found eggs attributed 

 to the pintail in nests of the races kikuyuensis and ruberrima. V. G. L. 

 van Someren (1956, pp. 501-503) wi-ote that he once found a pintail's 

 egg in a nest of this finch (race kikuyuensis), but gave no details. In 

 an earUer paper (1918, pp. 281-282), Avriting of the parasitic breeding 

 of the pintail, he listed ^'Lagonosticta ruberrima" {=E. senegala 

 ruberrima) with the comment that "more often one egg or young to 

 each nest, but occasionally 2 are found." This statement indicates 

 that he must have seen a considerable number of instances in his field 

 experience. Unfortunately, the data were not presented more fully. 

 The records for the southern race, rendalli, are: A parasitized nest 

 found in Nyasaland by Paget-Wilkes (1924, p. 23, published 

 erroneously as the race brunneiceps,^^ which is now known to inhabit 

 Eritrea and Ethiopia, east to Darfur), and a set of four eggs of this 

 finch and one of the pintail, collected at Ndumu, Zululand, March 21, 

 and now in the collections of the Transvaal Museum (A. Roberts, 

 1939, pp. 106-107). Winterbottom (1951, p. 38) listed this finch as 

 a common victim of the pintail in southern Africa. 



In aU the above instances, the identification of the parasitic eggs 

 as pintail eggs is merely probable. In no case were the eggs allowed 

 to hatch, and in none of these cases did the observer state that other 

 species of Vidua or of Ilypochera were definitely absent from the 

 immediate or adjacent area. In his discussion of this finch in the 

 Belgian Congo, Chapin (1954, p. 530) wrote that it "is believed to 



1* Habropyga rara Antinori, Catalogo . . Uccelli . . ., 1801, p. 72 (between White Nile and Qhazal 

 RiviT). 



»s Fringilla senegala Linnaeus, Systema naturae, ed. 12, vol. 1, 1706, p. 320 (Senegal). 



•9 LagonoHida brunneiceps ruberrima Reichenow, Ornith. Monatsb., vol. 11, 1903, p. 24 (Victoria Nyanza). 



•' Lagonostlda brunneiceps Sharpe, Catalogue of the birds in the British Museum, vol. 13. 1890 p. 277 

 (Maragaz, Eritrea). 



