Mr. W. E. Brooks on the Genus Acanthis. 359 



lat. to Ugogo, and possibly Mosambique, on the east side^ and 

 to Senegambia on the west coast. 



a and b {Brit. Mus.) . Bright varieties : cheeks and ear- 

 coverts hnii, breast shaded with rufous ; very typical forms 

 of Ploceus russi, Fiusch. I have examined very similar spe- 

 cimens in the Berlin and Paris Museums. They have occa- 

 sionally the sides of the head and throaty which would be 

 black iu typical males, slightly marked out in brown ; but I 

 find no sex attached to any of the labels. In the Zoological 

 Society's Gardens there is now a very fine living specimen 

 of this form, which I regard as a variety of Q. cethiopica, 

 although I am imable to prove such to be the case. 



XXXVI. — Additional Notes on the Genus Acanthis. 

 By W. Edwin Brooks. 



Thanks to the kindness of Dr. L. Stejneger, of the United 

 States National Museum, I have been able to examine a 

 number of Redpolls of different species, and I find that it is 

 necessary to supplement my notes on these birds in ' The Ibis' 

 for October 1885, pp. 381-384, by some additional parti- 

 culars. 



The superiority of the broad white edgings to the tertials 

 and tail-feathers, but especially the latter, in Acanthis exilipes 

 will not hold good; ior A. hornemanni, in good fresh feather, 

 has very marked white edges to the tail-feathers. There is also 

 much white on the tertials. The reliable distinction between 

 the two is certainly the very great difference in size. The 

 wings of three male A. hornemanni now before me measure 

 3"42, 330, and 3'28 inches; and of three male A. exilipes 

 3-00, 2-90, and 2-90. In his paper in ' The Auk ' for April 

 1884, Dr. Stejneger gives the average for the wings of six 

 male A. hornemanni as 3*40, and of seventeen male A. exilipes 

 as 2'91, of six female A. hornemanni 3'31, and of twelve 

 female A. exilipes 2"80. I think it may also be remarked 

 here that the wing of A. exilipes averages longer than that of 

 A. linaria. 



