54 Mr. G. L. Bates— Field-Notes on the 



tails — for display, not because of any difficulty in supporting^ 

 them. Sometimes an individual remains in the air at one spot 

 for some moments^ fluttering its Avings and waving its tail. 

 While doing this I have heard one make a vigorous twittering 

 noise ; another, perched on a dead tree, was heard to sing 

 a few notes that could really be called a song. 



These birds have beeu seen in their breeding-plumage and 

 recorded in June, July, and August, while probably they keep 

 it longer — perhaps for the same months as Pyromelana, of 

 which an account was given above. 



1545. Passer griseus. [Mvakumba.] 



Sharpe, Ibis, 1908, p. 342. 



The nests of these Sparrows are loose piles of trash, 

 including feathers of fowls. They are placed in all sorts 

 of situations about a village, STich as on the ridge-poles of 

 houses under the projecting roofs, and in bunches of plantains 

 and bananas growing behind the dwellings. Two eggs or 

 nestlings are found in a nest. The eggs measure 21 x 15 mm. 



[The eggs are of a rather broad pointed oval shape and 

 slightly glossy. The ground-colour is white or yellowish- 

 white, heavily blotched and spotted over the greater part of 

 the shell with dark lilac-grey and umber-brown. In one egg 

 the grey markings predominate and a good deal of the 

 ground-colour is visible ; in the second the brown markings 

 are numerous and cover the greater i)art of the shell. — 

 O.-G.] 



1614. Emberiza cabanisi. 



Sharpe, Ibis, 1908, p. 342. 



The Bunting of this country sings a well-marked little 

 song — not very pretty, but a song in intention, — which can 

 never be mistaken when once heard. It sings perched on a 

 twig in some of the smaller trees of the open land around 

 the villages. The white on its outer tail-feathers, seen from 

 beneath, gives the tail the apiDcarance of being forked. 



1C30. MoTACiLLA VIDUA. [Amalaka.] 



Sharpe, Ibis, 1908, p. 341. 



On the few occasions on which I have seen this (or a 



