3U Captain G. E. Sliellcy on the 



plumages in this and the next genus being almost identical 

 in colouring. 



The members of the present genus appear peculiarly liable 

 to melanism, and I consider it proved that the Vidua concolor, 

 Cass., is nothing but a black variety of C. ardens, for in the 

 Berlin Museum I have examined three specimens from Ma- 

 lengue, in Angola — one entire black, labelled Penthetria 

 concolor ; another is the typical red-collared C. ardens ; and 

 the third is exactly intermediate, the collar being traced in 

 dull red. Other varieties of this species I have seen with 

 the collar orange. 



There is at present in the Colonial and Indian Exhibition 

 a specimen of C. axillaris, in which the chestnut on the 

 wings is reduced to only a few markings. The amount of 

 rufous is not an absolutely constant character, for there is a 

 specimen in the British Museum from Mombas in which the 

 wing is unrecognizable from that of the Natal bird. I 

 therefore consider C. phmniceus, Heugl., which I once 

 described as Urobrachya zanziharica, as only a variety with 

 no positively constant characters, but the commonest form 

 of this species north of the Zambesi. 



I have based my divisions of C capensis with a large and 

 small race, and C. xanthomelas as a subspecies, ujaon the 

 colouring of the under surface of the quills, in the legs being 

 paler and the thighs brown in C capensis, while in C. xan- 

 thomelas the thighs are black ; but this latter character is 

 subject to modifications. The Camaroons bird, type of Eu- 

 plectes phoenicomerus, Gray, belongs to the small S. -African 

 form. As the Camaroons is out of a natural range for this 

 bird and no other specimens have been recorded from 

 W. Africa, I should look upon it as possibly an escaped 

 cage-bird. 



Key to the Species. 



a. Under wiug-coverts entirely black. Tail very 

 long. 

 a}. Least series of wing-coverts scarlet, median 



series wliite 79. C. procne. 



