POLIOSPIZA TRISTRIATA. 231 



In this country Mr. Lort Phillips procured his five typical 

 specimens of P. ])allidior in January and February, 1897 : these 

 he considered to represent a pale race of P. tristriata, but I 

 cannot myself see that they difiFer from the typical Abyssinian 

 form. He found them frequenting the more thickly wooded 

 parts of the Goolis range and the Wagga mountains in small 

 family parties. In Abyssinia, Ruppell discovered the type, 

 and Heuglin found the species abundant in the highlands of 

 Bogos and Abyssinia between 4,000 and 11,000 feet, and met 

 with it in Gallaland. They were occasionally in large flocks, 

 and he likens their note to that of our common House- Sparrow. 

 Dr. Blanford remarks : " Very common throughout the high- 

 lands, generally amongst bushes, in small flocks or singly. 

 It keeps much to the ground. I never saw it at lower eleva- 

 tions." Count Salvadori records fourteen specimens from 

 Shoa, collected there by Antinori and Ragazzi, and observes 

 that one of these, a very pale isabelline variety, certainly of 

 this species, was made the type of P. isaheUina. In this 

 district Lord Lovat collected specimens at Lake Harrar 

 Meyer, Deru and Kosso, and remarks : " Usually met with in 

 pairs. This Finch is more an inhabitant of woods than of 

 cornfields." 



Heuglin describes an egg, he took of this species, as pale 

 greenisli with minute and larger violet spots on the thick end, 

 and measuring 0'8 X 0'62. Mr. Nehrkorn describes an egg 

 from Marungu, wliich he refers to this species, as being bluish 

 green with a few blackish brown dots, and measuring O'S X 0"6. 



I have called the species Riippell's Seed-eater after its dis- 

 coverer, for to translate the badly chosen Latin name into 

 the Three-striped Seed- eater, we must count the white throat 

 as one stripe, and the eyebrows as the other two, and then 

 the name would be equally applicable to all the members of 

 this genus. 



