The Oologisis' Record, June i, 1922. 27 



in Australia open bushland. I never saw them in primeval forest 

 or in very lightly timbered areas. 



Sennits sharpei (Neum.). — Sharpe's Serin was observed at 

 Zomba, Luchenza, and Blantja'e. It is a bird of fairly open country, 

 and 3-ou are most likely to meet with it in small plantations of 

 conifers, such as the Mlanje cedar, about European homesteads. 

 I could see no difference in appearance, song, or nidification between 

 these birds and those of the Uganda and East African form 5. 

 shelleyi : but 5. sulphuraiiis of the Cape is much larger and differs 

 also in its nesting. The first nests I found in Nyasaland were 

 two empty ones in low bushes in grassy country at Luchenza : 

 like Uganda nests, they were loosely-built of rootlets and lined 

 or rather padded with fids of raw cotton. This was on May 7th, and 

 on the 30th of the same month 1 took a clutch of three fresh eggs in 

 a small cv'press near my house at Nyambadwe. The nest was at 

 about 9 feet easily \'isible, and placed where a bough joined the 

 main stem. On the e\'ening of the day on which I took the eggs 

 the nest had disappeared. Another clutch of two was found on 

 August 13th. This nest was built near the end of an upward- 

 projecting branch of a Mlanje cedar, at about 25 feet. This nest, 

 outwardl}' composed as usual of rootlets, was lined with soft, dead, 

 downy seedheads of some plant I did not recognise, with one piece 

 of medicated cotton-wool from the house. I have never seen nests 

 during the summer months, October — April, when most birds are 

 breeding. An average egg measures 20 mm. x 13-5 mm. The 

 ground colour is very pale green ; a few small roundish, dark brown, 

 almost black, spots and freckles are disposed irregularly about 

 the larger end. They are so much larger than eggs of 5. ictems, 

 and so unlike any other local bird's egg that there would be no 

 difficulty in identifying them, even apart from the nest. I have 

 never seen more than three eggs, which I think is the normal clutch. 



Serimis icterus. — From Reichenow it would appear that the 

 local race of the Mozambique Serin is 5. i. madaraszi. It is 

 plentifully distributed all over the Protectorate, inhabiting for 

 ])reference open c(nnitry with a good growth of small bushes. 

 Natives often catch these birds to sell to Indians and others : they 

 are excellent songsters. The Chinyanja name is Kansire, which is 

 probably generic and applied to .S. sharpei as well. I find that 

 natives rarely distinguish between species of the same genus ; it 

 is well also to remember that the European habit of needless inquiry 



