if 
. 
' 
VIDUA ARDENS. 455 
within the other) concave. Bill, brilliant rose-red. Length, 10”; 
wing, 2’’ 9’; tail, 8’’.. The male often has a black chin, and is 
as often without this mark, which may be a sign of old age. The 
young is a plain brown bird and was described as Hstrelda carmelita 
by Dr. Hartlaub (Ibis. 1868, p, 46). 
Fig. Swains. B. W. Afr. i, pl. 12. 
44], Vipva arprns (Bodd.) Red-collared Widow Bird. 
This is a bird of the eastern portion of South Africa; Mr. Rickard 
has found them at East London, and we fell in with them at Alice 
and on the Blinkwater. Captain Trevelyan says that it is common 
near Kingwilliamstown. Mr. TC. Atmore sent several specimens 
from Eland’s Port, where it was common ; our friend Captain Harford 
observed it in Natal, where also Mr. T. Ayres has procured it. 
Capiain Shelley also met with it at Pinetown, and Mr. T. E. Buckley 
obtained it in full breeding plumage on the Drakensberg Mountains 
in December. Mr. F. A. Barratt states that he shot the species 
between Potchefstroom and Rustenberg, and also near Pretoria. He 
has seen it at the Macamac Goldfields, but did not notice it further 
south than the Rhinoster River. Dr. Kirk likewise procured 
specimens at Chibisa on the Zambesi and on the Shiré River. It 
also extends to the west coast, having been obtained by Dr. Schiitt 
at Malange in Angola. 
Mr. Guillemard writes :—“ Vidua ardens is not uncommon on the 
rivers of the north-western Transvaal, and may be met with even as 
low as Rustenberg. It is fond of haunting large reed beds, from 
which it does not seem ever to wander far; indeed, it is so shy that 
one is rarely able to get a shot at it. At a distance they much 
resemble Chera progne, from which they are only to be distinguished 
by their smaller size. In summer plumage the bill and feet are jet 
black, and, besides the tipping of the under tail coverts with grey, 
there is occasionally a grey feather or two about the head. 
Captain Harford informs us that in Natal! they fly in flocks, five or 
six males with about fifty females. This we also observed when we 
fell in with them in the swampy grass lands and fields of Kaffir corn 
at Alice. The females usually hid themselves in the sea of herbage, 
diving to the bottom in a moment, while the males, after occasionally 
doing battle with each other, or hovering with the peculiar jerking, 
flapping motion, common to this genus and Chera, over some of the 
