PARASITIC WEAVE RBIRDS 123 



Straw-Tailed Widow Bird 



Vidua fischeri (Reichenow) ^^ 



Plate 1 



Distribution 



The straw-tailed widow bird of eastern Africa is very imperfectly 

 laiown. It inhabits the same type of country and the same geographic 

 range as the blue widow bird. My own experience with it was in the 

 dry thornbush from Taveta to Maktau, Kenya. Its known range is 

 from Ethiopia and British SomalUand south to central Tanganyika. 

 A more detailed statement of its distribution foUows: 



Ethiopia: Chiefly hot, fairly dry lowlands of southern portion of country, 

 Ourso, Shoa, Webi-Schebelli, Ira-Luku, Hariro, Arussl Gallaland (Sheik Hussein, 

 Bali), Abaya Lakes area (Gato River near Gardula), and Boran (Tertale, Yavello). 



British Somaliland: Arabsiyo, Gebili, Hargeisa. 



Sudan: Reported seen (not collected) on eastern slope of Dongotona Mountains 

 and at Lolimi and Lodmara, in eastern part of Equatoria Province. 



Italian Somaliland: Karo-Lola, Djido, Damaso, Wante, Gobwin, Ogodan, 

 Goura, Bussaler, Hallier, Odda. 



Kenya: Chiefly to east of Rift Valley, but not entirely so, Meuressi and south- 

 east of Lake Stephanie in Turkanaland, Marsabit, Nguruman near Lake Naivasha, 

 Kendu Bay on Lake Victoria, Kikuyu, Loita, Kitui, Simba, Suk, Tsavo, Ndai, 

 M'toto Andei, Kinani, Tsavo, Voi, Taveta, Maktau, Samburu. 



Uganda: Kapus and Lokosomal, in dry sandy thornbush country of northern 

 Karamoja, not far from Uganda-Sudan border. 



Tanganyika: Steppes around Kilimanjaro, Moschi, Useguha, Ngare Nairobi, 

 Dodoma, Samumba, Singida, Suna, Useguha, 10 miles north of Iringa, Ugogo, and 

 Unyamwesi. 



Customarily I have found this species in somewhat denser growths 

 of bushes and thorny scrub than I have the pintail. In southern 

 Ethiopia, Pease (in Ogilvie-Grant and Reid, 1901, p. 614) found the 

 strawtail in the high trees bordering the marshes of the Errer Gota 

 River, quite a different type of habitat from the essentially terrestrial 

 one or the low vegetation favored in most places farther south. 

 Granvik (1934, pp. 177-178), however, found it frequenting tall 

 Acacias and other trees at small pools or streams in Turkanaland, 

 where he considered it a bird of the steppes and deserts. In Kenya, 

 Jackson (1938, p. 1529) found it in small open spaces in the bushveld 

 where the grass was short and scanty, and also near rock pools at 

 M'toto Andei and Kinani. 



The altitudinal range is from less than 1,000 feet up to 5,000 feet. 



22 Linura fischeri Relchenow, Omith. Centralbl., vol. 7, 1882, p. 91 (Usegua). 



