— 30I — 



Nigrita bicolor brunnescens. 



Nigrita bicolor brunnescens Reichenow, Orn. Monatsber, 1902, 

 p. 173. — Tvpe localitv : Canieroon. 



I bave had some difficultv in making up mv raind whether the 

 single spécimen of the Chestnut-breasted Negro-finch which 

 Mr LowE shot at Iju, Lagos in January iq20, belongs to the above 

 form or to the typical species. It is slightly grevei^ than most birds 

 in the British Muséum from Cameroon. Spécimens of this finch 

 obtained by Ansorge on the Lower Niger vvere however assigned 

 to the Cameroon race, so that I feel satisfied that my identification 

 is correct. 



N. b. brunnescens is now represented in the Muséum from 

 Cameroon, Gaboon, the Belgian Congo, Princes island and 

 Southern Nigeria : Reichenow (Vôg. Afr. III, p. 167) records it 

 from Landana, the most southerlv point of its range. 



I hâve not seen spécimens of Reichenow's N. b. saturatior but 

 if Shelley's surmise is correct it vvill be merely a synonvm of 

 N. b. brunnescens. I accept it provisionallv as one certainlv might 

 expect the Uganda bird to be separable. I treat both brunnescens 

 and saturatior as subspecies of N'. bicolor and not as Reichenow 

 bas done in his book raaking both brunnescens and bicolor species, 

 and saturatior a subspecies of brminencens, we then hâve the 

 following races of this Negro Finch : 



I. NltiRITA BICOLOR BICOLOR. 



Pytelia bicolor Hartl., Syst. Verg. Breni., 1844, P- 1^ '■ Gold 

 Coast. 



Range. — Portuguese Guinea, Sierra Leone, Libéra, Gold 

 Coast. 



Distinguishing characters. — Upper-part state-colour, under- 

 parts deep vinous-chestnut. 



