146 EMBERIZA FLAVIVENTRIS. 



branches of an acacia-tree, from 6 to 10 feet above the ground. 

 The nest is cup-shaped, about 2^ inches across, and is com- 

 posed, of fine twigs and roots, and lined with finer material of 

 the same description. The eggs, four or five in number, are 

 never merely spotted, but are scrolled round the obtuse end 

 with purplish brown on a white ground." 



In Natal I shot a specimen at Pinetown in the open 

 country where the grass had been recently burnt, and Colonel 

 Savile Reid, while at Ladysmith in August, found a good 

 number frequenting the bush at the base of the hills. In 

 Zululand, the Messrs. Woodward collected four specimens at 

 Eschowe. Mr. T. E. Buckley writes : " Met with sparingly 

 in the bush veldt north of Pretoria into the Bamangwato 

 district ; but not found in any great abundance. It seems 

 to be rather solitary in its habits." He also procured speci- 

 mens in Swaziland. In the Barberton district, according to 

 Dr. Kendall, it is called by the colonial Dutch " Strep-kopji." 

 This name, according to Stark, is applied to Fringillaria 

 capensis in Cape Colony. Mr. T. Ayres records it as very 

 common throughout the wooded parts of the Magaliesbergen 

 and plentiful in some parts adjoining the Limpopo. Mr. 

 Guy Marshall found it by no means uncommon in Mashona- 

 land, and the late Mr. Frank Gates collected, specimens at 

 many places during his journey from the Limpopo to the 

 Victoria falls of the Zambesi. In the British Museum is 

 a specimen from Tete on the Zambesi. Further up the 

 latter river Captain Boyd Alexander procured a specimen 

 between Chicowa and Zumbo, and writes : " Inhabits high 

 ground, and especially where the wood is composed of 

 CapaifiTce mopane." This Bunting is distributed very 

 generally throughout the Lake district of Central Africa 

 and Eastern Africa to about 17° N. lat., but is apparently 

 outnumbered in Nyassaland by E. major, and is replaced 



