CINNAMOPTERYX CASTANEOFUSCA 357 



Ciaaamopteryx castaneofusca. 



Ploceus castaneofuscus, Less. Eev. Zool. 1840, p. 99 Casarnanse ; 

 Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 53 (1904). 



Cinnamopterys castaneofusca, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 472 (1890) ; 

 Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 565 (1896) ; Nehrkorn, Kat. Eiers. p. 131 

 (1869) cgcj. 



Ploceus isabelliuus, Less. Eev. Zool. 1840, p. 226 Sierra Leone. 



Adult male. Head, neck, wings, upper tail-coverts, tail, chest and thighs 

 black ; back, abdomen and under tail-coverts deep chestnut. Iris and legs 

 brown; bill black. Total length 5-9 inches, culmen 0'8, wing 3-15, tail 2-1, 

 tarsus 0-9. <? , 30. 1. 72, Abrobonko (Shelley). 



Adult female. Upper parts brown, inclining to olive towards the crown 

 and to rufous on the upper tail-coverts ; top of head and the mantle with 

 obscure dark centres to the feathers ; tail and most of the wings brownish 

 black ; lesser coverts like the back ; edges of median and greater coverts 

 and of the inner secondaries buffy brown, the other quills more narrowly 

 edged with brown ; under wing-coverts buffy brown like the under parts 

 generally ; sides of crop like the ear-coverts, darker and less rufous ; chin, 

 throat and centre of breast paler and the latter part yellower. Iris brown ; 

 bill brown fading into flesh-colour on the lower mandible ; legs brown. 

 Wing 2-85. 2 , 24. 2. 72, Abouri (Shelley). 



The Chestnut-and-black Weaver ranges over West Africa 

 from Senegambia to the Congo. 



The type is a male specimen from Casarnanse. A hen bird 

 procured at Sierra Leone was described by Lesson, later in 

 the same year, 1840, as Ploceji^; isahdlinus ; in this district 

 MacDowell obtained an adult male, and Mr. Kemp has found 

 these Weavers breeding at Bo in October and showed me one 

 of their eggs, which is of a uniform pale blue and much 

 elongated. According to Dr. Buttikofer the species is common 

 throughout Liberia, frequenting the neighbourhood of human 

 habitations in preference to the deep forests. In habits it 

 resembles Hyphantornis cuadlatus, but apparently prefers less 

 elevated breeding places, such as reed-jungles, where they 

 attach their nests to the tops of one or two of the shafts. 

 One December evening, at Robertspoi"t, his attention was 



