PLOCEPASSER SUPERCILIOSUS 333 



that Dr. Donaldson Smith has collected two specimens, "which 

 are now in the British Museum. A male, the type of the 

 species, he discovered in Somaliland, September 14, 1895, and 

 the other, a female, he obtained in the hills to the west of 

 Lake Stefanie, December 10, 1899. 



Plocepasser superciliosus. 



Plocens superciliosus, Eiipp. Atlas Vog. p. 24, pi. 15 (1826), Abyssinia. 



Plocepasser superciliosus, Eeichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 11 (1904). 



Ploceipasser superciliosus, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 248 (1890) ; Shelley, 

 B. Afr. I. No. 472 (1896). 



Adult male. Upper parts earth brown, with the forehead, crown and 

 nape chestnut ; the brown on the lower back and upper tail-coverts slightly 

 more ashy than the mantle ; wings and tail darker ; median and greater 

 coverts with buff ends forming two bars on the wing ; quills edged with 

 brownish buff, inclining to white on the inner secondaries : under wing-coverts 

 and narrow inner edges to the quills buff; tail uniform brown; a complete 

 broad white eyebrow ; sides of head above the line of the gape rufous brown, 

 with a white mark under the eye ; below the line of the gape, and sides of 

 upper neck, white, separated from the white chin and throat by a strongly 

 marked band of black ; under surface of body and the under tail-coverts 

 white, of a slightly more ashy shade than the throat. " Iris light brown ; 

 bill brown ; legs light brown." Total length 6'4 inches, culmen 0-65, wing 

 3-4, tail 2-7, tarsus 0-8. (?,14. 1. 99. Laga Hardim (Lovat). 



The Chestnut-crowned Sparrow-Weaver ranges over 

 Northern Tropical Africa between the Equator and 17° N. lat. 



The species has been received by Swainson from Seue- 

 gambia, and by Verreaux from Casamanse, and there is a 

 specimen in the British Museum labelled Senegal (Warwick). 

 The next most western range known to me for the species 

 is Grambaga ; here, according to Capt. W. Giffard, it is 

 abundant, and Mr. Boyd Alexander writes : " A pair was 

 obtained at Gambaga. This species is locally disti'ibuted ; it 

 lives in small colonies." In the Niger district Thomson pro- 

 cured a specimen at Iddah, and Mr. Hartert has recorded it 

 from Loko and Shongo. 



