15. 8PEEMESTES. 261 



15. SPERMESTES. 



Type. 



Spei'inestes, Sioams. B. W. Afr. i. p. 201 (1837) S. cucullatus. 



Lepidopygia, Reichenb, Singv. p. 48 (18(31_) S. uana. 



Range. Africa and Madagascar. 



Key to the Species. 



a. Feet blackish ; no yellow on the rump and upper 



tail-coverts. 



a! . With no white spots or bars on the lower back 



and rump, or on the secondaries or primaries ; 



back, throat, and fore neck greenish black . . bicolor, p. 261, 



b' . With no white bars or spots on the rump; 



secondaries externally checkered with white 



spots punctata, p. 262. 



c' . With white bars or spots on the rump. 



a" . Secondaries checkered with white on the 

 outer webs as well as the primaries. 

 «'". Back glossy greenish black like the head, poensis, p. 262. 

 b'". Back chestnut, contrasting with black 



head niffricejjs, p. 263. 



b". Secondaries brown like back ; primaries 

 faintly checkered with white; back brown, 

 with a scapular patch of glossy green. 

 c'". A patch of glossy green on the sides of 



the breast cucullata, p. 264. 



d'". A patch of blackish og the sides of the 



breast, not green scutata, p. 265. 



b. Feet reddish ; rump and upper tail-coverts straw- 



yellow ; back brown ; head grey nana, p. 266. 



1. Spermestes bicolor. 



Amadina bicolor, Fraser, F. Z. S. 1842, p. 14o ; Allen ^- Thomps. 

 Exped. Niger, ii. p. 500 (1848) ; Fraser, Zool Typ. pi. 50. figs. 2, 3 

 (1849) ; Gray, Gen. B. ii. p. 370 (1849) ; id. Hand-l. B. ii. p. 54, 

 no. 6748 (1870). 



Spermestes bicolor, Bp. Consp. i. p. 454 (1850) ; Hartl. Orn. W.- 

 Afr. p. 148 (1857) ; Reichenb. Singv. p. 36, Taf. xiii. figs. 112, 113 

 (1861) ; Sharpe, Ibis, 1870, p. 481 ; id. Cat. Afr. B. p. 64 (1871); 

 Shelley ^ Bucklei/, Ibis, 1872, p. 289; Sharpe, P. Z. S. 1874, 

 p. 306 ; Bi/tfik. Notes Leyden Mus. vii. p. 202 (1885J, viii. p. 261 

 (1886), X. p. 91 (1888) ; Shelley, Ibis, 1886, p. 310. 



Adult. Glossy greenish black, the lesser and median wing-coverta 

 like the back ; greater coverts, quills, and tail-feathers black with 

 greenish gloss externall)' ; the inner secondaries with one or two 

 tiny white dots (sometimes absent) ; head all round, throat, and fore 

 neck glossy greenish black, which continues down the sides of the 

 breast ; remainder of the under surface pure white, except the 

 thighs, which are black ; the sides of the body mottled with black 

 bars where the white adjoins the black, the feathers being black, 

 white externally and at the ends ; under wing- coverts and axillaries- 



