DINEMELLIA BOEHMI 313 



placed at the extremity of the boughs of the taller mimosa 

 trees, and look like flat masses of the sharpest thorns ; the 

 entrance, however, is from below, and the interior is lined 

 with soft grass. The eggs are pale blue, dotted with dark 

 brown spots." Mr. Hawker records it as extremely common 

 on the tableland in small flocks accompanying >Sjj?-eo shelleyi. 



Dinemellia boehmi. 



Textor bohmi, Eeicheu. J. f. O. 1885, p. 372, Unyamwcsi ; Bartl. Mon. 

 Weaver-birds, Pt. i. pi. 1. fig. 2 (1888). 



Dinemellia boehmi, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 507 (1890) ; Shelley, 

 B. Afr. I. No. 461 (1896) ; Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 8. (1904). 



Adult. Similar to D. dinemelli, from which it differs only in having the 

 brown portions of the plumage a shade darker, and the pale edges to the 

 feathers of the upper parts absent or only slightly indicated on the inner 

 secondaries. " Iris black ; bill reddish ; feet black " (Werther). Total length 

 8-4 inches, culmen 0-95, wing 4-8, tail 3-5, tarsus 1-35. 2 , 23. 10. 82. 

 Gonda (Bohm). 



Bohm's White-headed Weaver ranges over Eastern Africa 

 from north of Lake Nyasa, Lake Tanganyika and the Ugogo 

 country to the Victoria Nyanza. 



This very closely allied representative of the more widely 

 distributed D. dinemelli has been procured in Kondeland by 

 Sir Alfred Sharpe. Bohm obtained specimens at Qua Mpara, 

 on the western shore of Lake Tanganyika, and records it as 

 abundant in small flocks frequenting the more park-like 

 counti'y round Kakoma, often in company with Urolestes 

 X'luatorialis . While perched on a bush, or more often from 

 the summit of an acacia tree, it pours forth its shrill, trumpet- 

 like note, from which he suggests that its native name 

 " Tulieh," is pi'obably derived. The nests, several of which 

 are usually built together, are generally placed at the top of a 

 thorny acacia, and are rather untidy looking structures of 



