20 Mr. C. F. M. Swyimerton on the 



grass-jungle close to the Chinyika River, at a point about 

 ten miles south of Chirinda. Finally, on April 25th, I shot 

 a male in full plumage in the Nyahode Valley, Northern 

 Melsetter. It kept flying in front of me for several hundred 

 yards, constantly settling and feeding in the road, and then 

 rising up and moving on again for a short distance when I 

 caught it up. Its bill was crimson with a dusky culmen, its 

 feet were light vandyk-brown, and its irides orange ; length 

 in flesh 3*7 inches. The length of three females was 3"5 each : 

 bill brown-madder, brightest on the sides, culmen dusky; feet 

 brownish grey or pale pink ; iris orange or orange-vermilion. 

 The two adult males in my collection are more deeply tinged 

 with orange on the breast than are any of the South African 

 or Nyasaland skins in the British Museum. In this respect 

 they come halfway between this form and typical E.subflava 

 from North Tropical Africa. 



25. EsTKiLDA ANGOLENsis. Bluc-brcasted Waxbill. 



P. A common low-veld species, particularly from Chiba- 

 bava to the coast and south to the rubber-forests, where I 

 found it going about in pairs in the Kafir clearings. I 

 noticed a bird carrying nesting-material at Bimba's in 

 December. Other localities specially noted were Chibabava 

 (in rubber-plantation and in open wood), Mangunde, 

 Muchukwana, Chironda, Idunda River, Umhlonhlo, and 

 Gwaragwara. The specimen in my collection measured 

 4'9 inches in the flesh ; its bill was light purple with a blackish 

 commissure and tip, and its irides were reddish broAvn. 



2G. EsTKiLDA KiLiMENsis. Kilimanjaro Waxbill. 



Estrilda kilimensis, Shelley, B. Afr. iv. pt. 1, p. 238. 



Rh., P. This species appears to prefer rank grass in the 

 vicinity of water, the two localities in which I have noted it 

 most frequently being a small swamp near Chirinda and a 

 larger one, rich in weed-seeds owing to its having been 

 under cultivation in recent years, at the head of the Chiya- 

 dombe, a small Jihu stream. It goes about as a rule in 

 pairs or small parties, though I once met with a solitary 

 female, and it not infrequently settles on trees. 1 have only 



