— 319 — 



Range. — Vidua serena has an enormous range in Africa : Tt 

 is représentée! in the British Muséum from West Africa trom the 

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

 Southern Nigeria, Cameroon, Fernando Po, St Thomas Island, 

 N. Angohi and Bengwella. 



Thence it extends Eastvvards through French Equatorial Africa 

 and the Belgian Congo whence it extends over the whole of East 

 and South Africa from Abyssinia and the Sudan to the Cape and 

 even to the Comoro islands where Mr Nicoll obtained it in 

 Mayotte. 



Famii.v FRINGILLIDAE. 



Serinus mozambicus caniceps. 



Linaria caniceps d'Orbigny in Historia Politica y natural de la 

 Isla de Cuba, by R. de la Sagra, vol. III, Aves 1839, p. 86, 

 Atlas, vol. VIII, pi. XVI. — Type locality : Cuba, errore : 

 (Sénégal, West Africa). 



In the Auk., vol. XXXVII, ig2o, p. 300, Messrs Bangs and 

 Penard show that the bird hitherto nanied Serinus harthntbi 

 (Boi.le) should in their opinion bear the name Serinus caniceps 

 (d'Orb.). I hâve compared this species with plate XVI in d'Orbi- 

 gny's Atlas and niaking considérable allowance tor the early daie 

 of the plate, I see no reason why we should not accept the Ameri- 

 cans ruling especially as the description published at the saine tinie 

 by d'Orbignv mentions the characters vvhich the plate fails to 

 show. 



That disposes of the subspecific name. It has been customary 

 of late to consider this bird a race of Serinus icterus (Bonn and 

 ViEiEL., 1823) but in the Ibis, 1918, p. 242, it is ponted out that 

 Serinus mozambicus (P. L. S. Mui-ler, 1776) is according to 

 Mr Iredale, the oldest name for this species, so that the West 

 African bird must become a subspecies of Serinus mozambicus. 



Messrs Sclater and Praed hâve already adopted this change 

 in their review of the species. (Ibis, 1918, pp. 464-467.) 



