Whydahs. 243 



male poses " erect and on tip-toe before the female, the long 

 " feathers of the neck erected as a hood, and emitting- that 

 " weird long-drawn note which I can only describe as a combina- 

 " tion of hissing and spluttering." This quotation having hope- 

 lessly broken the thread of the sentence. I will leave it as it 

 stands and go on to the accounts of the nesting habits in a wild 

 state. 



Of these Stark gives full details and describes the nest as 

 " an oval domed structure, with a wide side entrance, roughly 

 " woven out of tine grass lined with the flowering tops of 

 ** grass or reeds. It is generally placed a few inches off the 

 " ground, in the centre of a tuft of grass, attached by its side^ 

 " to many grass stalks, the blades and tops of which are bent 

 " down and tied together to form an additional concealment 

 ■' and protection." The eggs, as described by Stark, are white 

 or bluish-whi'e closely marked with small spots and dashes of 

 dark brown and slate-grey. Shelley quotes another similar des- 

 cription bv Mr. Haagner. Mr. Teschemaker also describes the 

 eggs laid by this bird, and his description agrees well with pre- 

 vious ones by South African observers. 



♦ 



DELAMERE'S LUXCi-TAILED WHYDAH. 

 niitrut'iiya dclamcrcl. (H.L. v. 410). 



Synonomy. 

 Coliuspasscr dcJamcyc'i. Sh. 1903. and B. Afr. iv. 35. 

 Diatropiira prognc dclamcrcl. (Reichen. 1904). 



Range. Equatorial Africa (Kikuyu and Kenia). 



This race of the Long-tailed Whydah is to be chiefly 

 distinguished from the typical form l)y the much longer tail 

 feathersof the male when in full colour: up to 23 inches, as 

 against an average 18 and maximum 19.5 in D. progne. It is 

 so far unknown to British aviculture, as is also the next, the third 

 and last member of this genus given in the Hand List. 



BENGUELA LONG-TAILED WHYDAH. 

 Diatropiira ansorgci. Neumann. 1908. fH.L. v. 410). 

 Range. S.W. Africa (Benguela). 



(To be cor\tiniied). 



