HYPHANTORNIS TAHATAU 409 



bright golden yellow ; tail yellowish brown, with narrow yellow edges to the 

 feathers ; wing blackish brown, with bright yellow edges to all the feathers ; 

 inner edges of quills and the under wing-coverts pale yellow. " Iris orange 

 red ; bill black ; tarsi and feet reddish brown " (Alexander). Total length 5-4 

 inches, culmen 0-6, wing 295, tail 2-1, tarsus 0-9. S , 23. 11. 73, Limpopo 

 (Buckley). 



Type, female in breeding plumage. Upper parts pale brown with a 

 yellow shade, rump and edges to tail-feathers slightly yellower; mantle with 

 broad blackish shaft-stripes to the feathers ; wings with the lesser coverts 

 like the mantle, ends of median coverts and edges of the other feathers ashy 

 buff or yellow ; inner edges of quills and the under wing-coverts yellowish 

 buff; sides of head yellowish brown like the crown ; cheeks and under parts 

 yellow, slightly paler on the throat. Total length 5-75 inches, culmen 0-6, 

 wing 2-9, tail 2-1, tarsus 0-9. S. Afr. (Smith's Coll.). 



Male and female, winter plumage. Similar to the last, but differing in 

 the head and mantle being less shaded with yellow, an ill-defined buff eye- 

 brow, and the under parts white, with a tinge of yellow on the lower 

 throat. 



The Taliatali Masked-Weaver inhabits Africa between about 

 12° and 26° S. lat. 



The type, a female in breeding plumage, was discovered by 

 Sir Andrew Smith between the Orange River and the Tropic, 

 very possibly near Rustenburg, which is the most southern 

 range yet positively known for the species. The full plumaged 

 male has been figured under the name Ploceus melcufips (Cab. 

 J. f. 0. 1884, pi. 3, fig. 2), and of late years the species has 

 been, perhaps best, known as H. shelleiji, which was described 

 from specimens collected by Sir John Kirk at Tete on the 

 Zambesi. 



Under the latter name Prof. Bocage has recorded the 

 species from Benguela, and the type of Ploceus finxchi came 

 from Mossamedes. In the British Museum there are two 

 males in breeding plumage from Ondongo and two females 

 from Elephant Vley collected by Anders-son, who writes : " The 

 species is common in Damaraland and tlie parts adjacent; it is 

 partial to the neighbourhood of water, where it nests, some- 

 times amonofst reeds and at others on the extremities of the 



