10 HYPOCHERA FUNEREA 
of the Nubians to the straw-thatched houses of the Soudanese 
and usually more than one pair live about the same farm- 
building. The song is not remarkable and the call-note is a 
very sharp harsh chirp. The nest, according to Brehm, is built 
indifferently on trees or in the roofs of houses or holes in walls, 
and much resembles that of our House-Sparrow, and is con- 
structed of straw, rags, cotton, feathers and so on, lined with 
hair and shreds. Occasionally they will take possession of a 
deserted Swallow’s nest or a hole in a tree. 
The eggs are three to five in a clutch, of a bluish white 
colour, and measure 0°6 x 0:44, 
Hypochera funerea. 
Fringilla funerea, De Tarrag. Rev. Zool. 1847, p. 180 Natal. 
Hypochera funerea, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii, p. 810 (1890); Shelley, 
B. Afr. I. No. 309 (1896) ; Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 215 (1904). 
Hypochera funerea purpurascens (non Reichen.) Neum. J. f. O. 1900, 
p. 285 Uganda. 
Hypochera wilsoni, Hartert Nov. Zool. 1901, pp. 342, 348, Velwa. 
Similar to H. ultramarina, but differing in the quills and tail being of a 
paler brown and in haying more white on the under surface of the wing; no 
greenish blue gloss on the plumage. 
The Mourning Combasou ranges from the Niger through 
Central Africa to Natal. 
In the British Museum there is a Specimen procured by Mr, 
Robin at Abeokuta, which has been referred to this form, but 
as it was along time in spirits, this determination may not 
be correct, so I prefer to regard the type of H. wilsoni from 
Yelwa in Central Nigeria as coming from the most northern 
known range for this species. The genus Hypochera has not 
been recorded from Western Africa between the N iger and the 
Congo, nor to the south of Damaraland. The present species 
is, however, generally distributed over Central Africa to as 
far south as Natal and Zululand, Specimens having been 
