132 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 223 



West Africa, but in this matter they are in error, as there are at least 

 two definite instances (see Breeding Season and Range above). 



Quail finch: Ortygospiza atricollis (Vieillot) ^J 



One record refers to the southern race of the host, 0. a. polyzona 

 (Temminck).32 D. C. H. Plowes informed me that on April 22, 1946, 

 9 miles southwest of Bloemhof, Transvaal, he found a nest of the quail 

 finch containing four somewhat incubated eggs of the owner and one 

 fresh egg of a long-tailed widow bird. Inasmuch as the shafttail was 

 the only parasitic longtail in the area, it probably was the species 

 involved. As the eggs of the quail finch are pure white, like those of 

 the parasitic longtails, it is possible that the fifth egg might have been 

 an abnormal one of the quail finch, though the difference in incubation 

 as well as in size seems to make this alternative unlikely. 



Melba finch : Pytilia melba (Linnaeus) 33 



There are four records of nests, all unfortunately somewhat uncer- 

 tain as to the identification of the eggs ascribed to the shafttail. All 

 four were kindly related to me by the collector, D. C. H. Plowes. The 

 records of the nests are: 



Matopos Research Station, Southern Rhodesia, February 16, 1950, 

 four eggs attributed to the melba finch and one to the shafttail. 



Queens Mine, near Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia, March 14, 1950, 

 three eggs attributed to the melba finch, one to the paradise widow 

 bird, and one to the shafttail. 



Two miles southeast of Warmbaths, Transvaal, January 18, 1942, 

 three eggs attributed to the melba finch, one to the paradise widow 

 bird and one to the shafttail. 



Same locality, February 7, 1944, two eggs attributed to the melba 

 finch, two to the violet-eared waxbill, and one to the shafttail. This 

 unfortunately confused instance, probably too uncertain to be of any 

 use, had a still more involved history. When first found a male 

 melba finch was brooding on two eggs. A week later a male violet- 

 eared waxbill was brooding and no sign of the melba finch could be 

 found; the nest then contained the five eggs listed above. 



In each of these four nests the eggs were differentiated by size only, as 

 all the species involved lay pure vv-hite eggs. The eggs of the paradise 

 widow bird are suflficiently larger to distinguish them but those of the 

 other three species differ by not more than a millimeter in their long 

 axis, and not that much in their transverse axis. Until an identified 

 fledged young shafttail is obtained from a nest of a melba finch, it 

 cannot be looked upon as definitely a host of the shafttail. 



SI FringiUa atricollis Vieillot, Nouveau dictioanaire d'hlstolre naturelle, vol. 12, 1817, p. 182 (Senegal.) 

 " FringiUa polyzona Temminck, Nouveau recueil de planches c»lorlees d'oiseaux, vol. 37, 1823, pi. 221, 

 fig. 3 (aambla=Natal). 

 M FringiUa melba Linnaeus, Systema naturae, ed. 10, vol. 1, 1758, p. 180 (Chlna=Angola, ex Zedlltz). 



