MELANOPTERYX MAXWELLI 363 



Accordiug to Dr. Reiclienow the species is abundant in 

 Camaroons up to 3,000 feet. They breed in colonies, suspend- 

 ing their nests from the ends of leaves of the cocoanut palms 

 and banana trees, often selecting those which grow in the 

 native market-places, at other times they will hang them over 

 water. The nest is rounded with an entrance passage hanging 

 down, and is constructed of fresh grass interwoven with the 

 flowers of the maize, and although usually suspended separately, 

 sometimes as many as three will be built one on top of the 

 other, when the colony is a large one, and space limited. The 

 eggs, two or three in number, are bluish green, and measure 

 on an average I'O x 0'65. Mr. Bates has obtained the species 

 at the Ja River, and it is apparently equally abundant in 

 Gaboon and Loango. In Angola the type was discovered by 

 Perrein, and Major v. Mechow has obtained the species on the 

 Kuango, a tributary of the Congo, along the course of which 

 river it has been met with by Bohndorii" at Leopoldsville and 

 by Jameson at Yambuya. 



It ranges over Equatorial Africa to as far east as Kavirondo, 

 where Mr. Jackson, Dr. Ansorge and Mr. Neumann have pro- 

 cured specimens, and is apparently not uncommon in Central 

 Africa, having been obtained on Sesse Island, Bukoba, in 

 Uganda and Unyoro, and in the Mombuttu district at Tomaja 

 and Kudurma. 



Melanopteryx maxwelli. 



Melanopteryx maxwelli, Alexander, Bull. B. 0. C. xiii. p. oi (1903) ; id. 



Ibis, 1903, p. 355 Fernando Fo. 

 Ploceus maxwelli, Reichen. Yog. Afr. iii. p. 52 (1904). 

 Melauopteryx mgerrima (uon Vieill.), Bocage, Jorn. Lisb. 1895, p. 10 



Balvad. Ace. H. tic. Tormo, 1903, p. 114 Fernando Fo. 

 Ploceus nigerrimus, Reichen. Vug. Afr. iii. p. 50 (1904 pt.) Fernando Fo. 

 Adult male. Jet black, with the base of all the feathers of the neck grey ; 

 under surface of wings dusky, with the inner edges of ihe cjuills whitish ash. 



