— 277 — 



from other unnamed places on the Niger bv Dr Baikie and 

 Mrs Heywood. 



From which it is apparent that this weaver is universally distri- 

 buted throughout Northern and vSouthern Nigeria. 



The races oi Plesiositagra ( Hyphantornis) cucullatus hâve been 

 reviewed bv Sclater and Praed (Ibis, 1918, pp. 434-436). 



I dislike Reichenows plan of « lumping » the Ploceidne nnder 

 the generic nanie Ploceus and intend to foUow the classification of 

 the weaver birds drawn np bv Mr J. P. Chapin (Bull. Amer. 

 Mus. Nat. Hist., XXXVII, 1917, pp. 243-280), in so far as that 

 goes. 



Range. — There is not, in niv opinion, sufficient material in 

 the Natural History Muséum to détermine how far South or East 

 P. c. cucullatus extends. It would seem, however, that the Belgian 

 Congo bird is P. c. bohndorffi, and that it meets the Uganda race 

 P.C. fcminina in the east Uelle River district. What the bird from 

 N. Angola is seems at présent dpubtful. Another race (P. c. ahys- 

 sinicHs) inhabits Abvssinia, but Mr Chapin also records it from 

 Yaku-Lnku in the Belgian Congo (1. c. plate VIII). I cannot 

 understand this distribution : P. c. cucullatus has a wide range 

 in West x*\frica. In the Britisb Muséum we hâve spécimens from 

 Sénégal, Gambia, Portuguese Guinea, Sierra Leone, Libéria, Gold 

 Coast, Northern and Soutiiern Nigeria, French Equatorial Africa, 

 Cameroon, Gaboon and Fernando Po. 



(This weaver simplv abounds nesting in palm trees. Some 

 trees were quite stripped of leaves and apparently dead. — 

 W. P. L.). 



Melanopteryx nigerrimus. 



Ploceus nigerrimusYi'EUA,., Nov. Dict., XXXIV, 1819, p. 130. — 

 Tvpe localitv : Congo. 



This is another weaver which Mr Lowe did not meet with 



