110 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BX7LLETIN 223 



ing from 11.5 to 15.5 by 9.5 to 11.25 mm. Bannerman (1953, vol. 2, 

 p. 1482) also gave these measurements, and noted that this variation 

 is considerable for so small an egg. Possibly the larger eggs are those 

 of the pintail. The set of eggs was found by Shuel in Northern 

 Nigeria. 



Crimson-rumped waxbill: Estrilda rhodopyga Sundevall ^ 



V. G. L. van Someren (1918, pp. 281-282) stated that this species 

 is one of two (the other being Estrilda astrild) from whose nests he 

 most frequently collected eggs or young of the pintail. Chapin (1954, 

 p. 557) described a nest found at Kasenyi in the eastern Belgian 

 Congo, September 8, containing six eggs, two of which were notably 

 larger than the others, and which "no doubt had been laid by Vidua 

 macroura, numerous and active in the vicinity." 



Both van Someren's and Chapin's observations have to do with the 

 Uganda race of the host, E. r. centralis? 



Zebra waxbill: Estrilda subflava (Vieillot)!" 



As far as I know, only the southern race E.s. clarkei^^ has been re- 

 corded as a victim of the pintail. Feo (1910, p. 146) was the first to 

 record the zebra waxbill as its host. A. Roberts (1939, pp. 106-109) 

 noted a set of three eggs of the waxbill and one of the parasite taken at 

 Rayton, near Pretoria, Transvaal, on February 26 The eggs are 

 now in the collection of the Transvaal Museum. D. C. H. Plowes 

 (in litt.) collected a set containing four eggs of the host and one of the 

 pintail, at Estcourt, Natal, on March 20. Symons (1919, p. 233) 

 wrote that in the Giants Castle Game Reserve, Natal, the pintail, 

 which is common there, generally lays its eggs in nests of the zebra 

 waxbill and the common waxbill. In the R. Ejreuger collection at 

 Helsingfors is a parasitized set of clarkei eggs containing one egg of the 

 pintail and one of the host, collected on March 10, 1947, near Bush- 

 mans River, Estcourt, Natal, by C. H. Jerome. Chapin (1954, p. 577) 

 listed the zebra waxbill among the hosts to be expected in the Belgian 

 Congo. 



Inasmuch as this host uses a variety of old nests of other weavers, 

 it would be of interest to know if it was more immune from the 

 attentions of the pintail in some types of nests than in others. In 

 other words, is the pintail attracted by the host or by the nest? 



• Estrilda rhodopyga Sundevall, Oefvers. Zongl. Vetensk. Akad. Forhandlingar, vol. 7, 1850, p. 126 (north- 

 east Africa, Sennar). 



• Estrilda rhodopyga centralis Kothe, Omlth. Monatsb., vol. 19, 1911, p. 70 (Klsenyi, Lake Klvu), 



ID Fringilla subflava VielUot, Nouveau dictlonnalre d'histoire naturelle, vol. 30, 1819, p. 575 (Senegal). 

 " Coccopygia clarkei Shelley, Bull. British Omlth. Club, vol. 13, 1903, p. 75 (Richmond Road, Natal). 



