440 HYPHANTORNIS MELANOCEPHALUS 



pale bright yellow. Total length 5-8 inches, culmen 0-65, wing 31, tail 2-1, 

 tarsus 0-9. <? , Gambia (Kendall). 



Adult female. Very similar to that of H. cajn talis, but slightly larger. 



Male in xointer "plumage. Similar to the female, but with a wash of 

 grey on the cheeks and the mantle of a rather more rufous shade. " Bill 

 ashy grey, shading into slate-colour on the upper part ; feet flesh-pink " 

 (A. G. Butler). 



The Gambia Black -beaded Weaver inhabits Senegambia. 



In the Britisli Museum there are specimens from the 

 Gambia River collected by Sir A. Maloney and Dr. P. Rendall. 

 The latter naturalist writes: "This bird, which more frequently 

 is to be seen than any other member of the family, prefers the 

 lower branches of the mimosa, common in the marshy ground 

 between the mangrove swamps ; and though it also builds in 

 colonies, I have seldom seen more than two nests on a single 

 tree; they were usually about six or seven feet from the ground- 

 level. Their eggs, which present every variation in colour 

 between olive green and russet brown, are seldom in clutches 

 of more than two, though once or twice I have taken three from 

 a nest." 



The species has also been procured at Casamanse and 

 Galam ; but in the Niger district it is apparently entirely re- 

 placed by H. capitalis. 



The type of Ploceus ilitboin, Hartl., which belongs to this 

 species, formed part of Storms's Tanganyika collection, and I 

 would suggest that the specimen may have been taken on board 

 from the Senegambia coast, as I find no evidence for supposing 

 the species to be a native of any other country. 



Regarding the moult. Dr. A. G. Butler kindly informs me 

 that he had a live specimen out of colour in 1898, which soon 

 acquired the full breeding plumage and retained it uninter- 

 ruptedly for six years, up to last winter, when it passed into 

 the duller plumage resembling that of the female. 



