434 HYPHANTORNIS BADIUS 



in Marcb, when we found it common among the tall trees." 

 Eiippell discovered the species in the warm valley of Abyssinia, 

 and Heuglin, not meeting with it in that country, considered 

 it to be migratory. 



Hyphantornis badius. 



Hyphantornis badius, Cass. Pr. Philad. Acad. 1850, p. 57 Fazokl ; 

 Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 460 (1890); Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 558 

 (1896). 



Ploceus badius, Reichen. Yog. Afr. iii. p. 67 (1904). 



Ploceus rufocitrinus, Mull. Naum. 1851, pt. iv. p. 28 S. Nubia. 



Ploceus mordoreus, Bp. Eev. et Mag. Zool. 1855, p. 76. 



Textor castaneoauratus, Antin. Cat. p. 65 (1864) Bhie Nile. 



Hyphantornis axillaris, Heugl. J. f. 0. 1867, p. 381. 



Adult male. Head and throat black ; remainder of neck and the crop 

 chestnut ; back bright yellow mottled with chestnut ; tail olive brown, 

 washed with yellow and with yellow edges to the feathers ; wings blackish 

 brown, the lesser wing-coverts with olive green edges, median and greater 

 coverts edged with yellow, sometimes tinted with rufous ; quills with duller 

 yellow outer edges and their inner edges and under wing-coverts bright 

 yellow ; breast chestnut, fading into yellow on the under tail-coverts. Bill 

 black; feet flesh-colour. Total length 5-5 inches, culmen 0-7, wing 2-9, 

 tail 1-9, tarsus 0-9 (Heughn). 



Female. Differs in having the forehead and crown olive green ; 

 mantle blackish brown, with broad pale tawny yellowish brown edges to the 

 feathers, and passing into uniform rufous on the lower back ; eyebrows, 

 sides of head, crop and flanks brownish yellow, fading into white on the 

 throat and remainder of the under parts. Bill horny brown, paler beneath ; 

 feet pale brown (Eeichenow). 



Cassin's Masked-Weaver inhabits Abyssinia and the "White 

 Nile. 



The type of the species was procured at Fazokl, on the Blue 

 Nile, at which river Antinori found his type of Ploceus castaneo- 

 auratus, and the type of Ploceus rvfocitrhius, Miill., came from 

 Southern Nubia. 



The range of the species is comparitively limited ; Heuglin 

 found it in large flocks along the AVhite Nile in March and 



