SYCOBROTUS STICTIFRONS 869 



Licht., as the oldest name we can be certain of, for the South 

 African bird. Vieillot's description of his Pyranga icteronielas 

 agrees perhaps best with the immature plumage of 8. kersteni. 



Sycobrotus stictifrons. (PI. 39, fig. 1.) 



Symplectes stictifrons, Fisch. and Reiclien. J. f. 0. 1885, p. 373 Liiuli. 



Sycobrotus stictifrons, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 424 (1890) ; Shelley 

 B. Afr. I. No. .504 (1896). 



Ploceus stictifrons, Eeichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 33 (1904). 



Adults. Sioailar to S. gregalis, from which they differ in the upper parts 

 being slightly paler and more ashy, especially towards the lower back and 

 upper tail-coverts, which are entirely ashy brown ; feathers of forehead, 

 front of crown and cheeks with white tips, giving to these parts a speckled 

 appearance ; chin and upper throat dark brown, with whitish angular shaft- 

 stripes ; centre of fore chest with a little black, generally hidden by the 

 yellow portion of the feathers. " Iris reddish brown ; bill grey ; feet 

 yellowish flesh-colour " (Stuhlmann). Total length GS inches, culmeu 0-75, 

 wing 3-4, tail 2-4, tarsus 09. 



Immature. Differs in the pale spots on the head being much less 

 sharply defined ; chin and upper half of throat yellowish buff. Ntondwe, 

 June (A. Sharpe). 



Fischer's Dark-backed Weaver inhabits Eastern Africa 

 between 10° and 24" S. lat. 



The most southern range known for the species is 

 Inhambane in Portuguese East Africa. Here, according to 

 Mr. Francis : " This Weaver-bird is found all over tlie 

 district, wherever there is thick bush." I do not otherwise 

 find it recorded from south of the Zambesi. M. E. Foa met 

 with it up the Zambesi, where he found it known to the natives 

 as the " Goti." To the north of that river Sir John Kirk 

 procured, during the Livingstone Expedition, three specimens 

 at the Shire Cataract, and from the nutiiber of specimens 

 collected by Mr. Alexander Whyte and Sir Alfred Sharpe it 

 must be a common bird throughout Nyasaland. Dr. Stuhl- 

 mann obtained a specimen at Quilemaine ; the late Joseph 



[February, 190 24 



