502 PLOCEID.E. 



Amblyosplza albi Irons, Sundev. (Efv. K. Vet.-Akad. Fiirh. Sfockh. 



ISrJO, p. 98 ; Butler, Fei/den, ^- Reid, Zool. 1682, p. 2o(i; Skarpe, 



ed. Larjfird^s B. 8. Afr. pp. 449, 848 (1884) ; Shelley, Ibis, 1887, p. 45. 

 Corvphegnathus albifroas, Bp. Cunsp. i. p. 450 (1850) ; Cab. Mus. 



Hein. i. p. 179 (1850) ; Reichvnb. Singv. p. 51, Taf. xx. tigs. 174- 



177 (1801). 

 ? Corypliegnatlms scliiffi, Bp. Consp. i. p. 450 (1850). 

 ? Pyrenestes schiffi, Gray, Iland-l. B. ii. p. 49, no. 008o (1870). 



Adult male. General colour above chocolate-brown, the lower 

 back, rump, and upper tail-coverts blackish, the feathers narrowly 

 ecl<^ed with sandy buff; wing-coverts and quills blackish, with faint 

 sandy-buff edges to some of the coverts and secondary quills, the 

 primaries white at the base, forming a large speculum ; tail-feathers 

 black ; crown of head chocolate-brown like the upper back, slightly 

 rufescent towards the nape ; forehead white ; lores and feathers 

 below the eye blackish ; ear-coverts, cheeks and sides of face, throat, 

 sides of neck, fore neck, and chest chocolate-brown, a little blacker 

 on the throat ; breast, abdomen, sides of body, Hanks, thighs, and 

 under tail-coverts dark ashy grey, with dusky shaft-stripes and pale 

 sandy-buff margins ; under wing-coverts and axillaries blackish ; 

 quills below black, with a large white patch at the base of the 

 pr-imaries : " base of the upper mandible and the under surface 

 of the lower one livid blackish brown, the other portions dull 

 yellowish grey, clouded with cream-yellow ; tarsus, legs, and toes 

 brownish red" {A. Smith); iris dark brown. Total length 7'3 

 inches, culmcn 0-i), wing 3-95, tail 2-85, tarsus 0"95. 



An adult male in sensonal plumar/e (July 31) is much browner, 

 and has all the feathers of the upper surface, as well as the coverts 

 and quills, distinctly edged with sandy buff. The lower parts are 

 also very distinctly margined in the same manner. The white on 

 the forehead is much restricted. 



Males in full plumage appear to lose entirely the pale margins to 

 the feathers. 



Adult female. Different from the male. General colour above 

 rufous brown, mottled with dark-brown centres to the feathers, 

 which have paler and more ochreous- brown margins ; lesser wing- 

 coverts like the back ; median and greater coverts black with 

 rufous-brown margins ; bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills 

 blackish brown, edged with rufous brown, the primaries with ashy 

 brown ; upper tail-coverts dark brown, fringed with sandy buff ; 

 tail-feathers blacldsh brown, edged with rufous brown, and tipped 

 with whitish on the outer feathers ; crown of head like the back 

 and similarly mottled ; lores and feathers below the eye blackish ; 

 ear-coverts uniform reddish brown ; checks and sides of neck dark 

 brown, streaked with white ; throat and under surface of body 

 white, streaked with dusky brown centres to the feathers, very 

 distinct on the fore neck and chest, more longitudinal on the breast, 

 and smaller on the abdomen, which is purer white ; sides of body 

 and flanks washed with reddish brown, and broadly streaked with 

 dark brown ; thighs brown, broadly edged with white ; under tail- 



