Birds from South-eastern Africa. 357 



Loxia lathami, Smithy Rep. Exp. Expl. Centr. Afr. p. 51 

 (1836)j is described from a young bird, but, I have no doubt, 

 refers to this species. 



It is extremely inconvenient to have to alter names thus — 

 Quelea lathami (Smith, 1836) in place of Q. sanguinirostris , 

 auct. nee Linn., or Quelea quelea (Linn. 1766) for the South- 

 African bird, and Quelea sanguinirostris (Linn. 1766, nee auct.) 

 in place of Qwe/e« cethiopica (Sundevall, 1850), for the North- 

 east African bird. 



I cannot help fancying that the day is not far off when 

 the scientific ear will accustom itself to the repetition of 

 the same name, as Quelea quelea, 1766, in preference to 

 Quelea lathami, 1836. Justice, the very spirit of our rules 

 for nomenclature, appears to me to cry out against the in- 

 consistency of rejecting, on account of sound, the older spe- 

 cific name to give place to the upstart generic title based 

 upon it.— G. E. S.] 



161. Passer arcuatus, Gmel. 



(46) S , Spalding^s, Hart river, 1st February. Iris dark 

 brown ; bill black; tarsi and feet dusky brown. 



Very plentiful in this locality, where many of the low 

 thorny bushes hold one or two of their nests, which are made 

 of sticks roughly put together and thickly lined with wool, 

 which is the easiest soft material for them to procure. 



162. Petronia flavigula (Sundev.). 



(27) Umvuli, 2nd August and 4th September. 



These Sparrows are not uncommon about the Umvuli, 

 frequenting the high trees, and feeding much as the Tomtits 

 do, hanging about the outer twigs and eating the young buds 

 &c. ; as, however, food of all kinds is scarce for birds, this 

 may not be a usual habit. They are now mostly in pairs, 

 and their loud Sparrow-like note, often repeated in the early 

 morning, attracts one's attention to them. 



[I have rejected the title petronella, Licht., for this bird, as 

 Pyrgita petronella, Licht. Mus. BeroL, appears to have re- 

 mained a MS. name until Bonaparte (Consp. Gen. Av. 

 p. 513) published the description. — G. E. S.] 



