310 Captain G. E. Shelley on the 



15. Spermestes bicolor. 



Amadina bicolor, Fraser, P. Z. S. 1842, p. 145, Cape 

 Palmas; id. Zool. Typ. pi. 50. fig. 2. 



Spermestes bicolor, Bp. Consp. i. 1850, p. 454. 



? Amadina poensis, Ilartl. Orn. W.-Afr. 1857, p. 148 (part.) 

 Casamanse. 



? Spermestes poensis, Rocliebrune, Faun. Senegamb. 1884, 

 p. 248. 



Hab. W. Afr., from tlie Gold Coast to the Bulama Islands 

 and probably Senegambia. 



a. February, Abouri {Shelley). 



4. MUNIA. 



1836. Munia, Hodgs. As. Research, xix. Type. 



p. 153 M. ruhronigra. 



1850. Padda, Reichb. Syst. Nat. pi. 76 . . M. oryzivora. 



1851. Oryzornis, Cab. Mus. Hein. i. 1851, 



p. 172 M. oryzivora. 



1851. Urolonga, Cab. t. c. p. 173 . . • . M. cantans. 

 1861. Eudice, Reichb. Singvog. p. 46, pi. 16. 



figs. 146-149 M. cantans. 



1861. Lepidopygia, Reichb. t. c. pi. 17. fig. 



152 . M. nana. 



This genus, as I have employed it, may have somewhat the 

 appearance of a refuge for the destitute. It is not a very 

 sharply defined group, but I consider it more advantageous 

 to keep these five species together than, as I should other- 

 wise have done, to divide them into five genera, which would 

 follow each other in the same order in which I have placed 

 the species. I have examined good specimens of all these 

 forms, and do not find distinguishing characters of sufficient 

 importance to render their generic separation imperative, 

 and they appear to me to constitute a group sufficiently 

 easily recognizable not to be confounded with any other of 

 the genera that I have employed. 



