16 VIDUA SERENA 
authority from west of 35° E. long. Rochebrune mentions 
several localities for it in Senegambia, but no one else has 
recorded it from that part of the continent. The types of 
the species were given to the Paris Museum in 1852, by 
Commandant Guislain, and although labelled in that Museum 
as coming from Gaboon, M. Oustalet rightly doubts the 
accuracy of the locality; and I may remark that the same 
supposed Gaboon collection contained many other Hast African 
forms, such as Passer castanopterus, &c. 
The spring and autumn moults take place about March and 
November, and the colour of the bill and legs also changes. 
The specimen figured by Forbes was presented to the Zoo- 
logical Gardens by Mr. Archibald Brown on July 17, 1878, 
when it was in immature plumage. In that summer it assumed 
the black dress, and was moulting in the following March when 
it died. 
Vidua serena. 
Emberiza serena, Linn. 8. N. i. p. 312 (1766). 
Vidua serena, Reichen. Vég. Afr. iii. p. 217 (1904). 
Emberiza vidua, Linn. S. N. i. p. 312 (1766) “ India” ! 
Emberiza principalis, Linn. 8. N. i. p. 313 Angola. 
Vidua principalis, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 203 (1890); Shelley, B. Afr. 
I. No. 312 (1896) ; Whitehead, Ibis, 1903, p. 224 Orange KR. ; Short- 
ridge, Ibis, 1904, p. 178 Pondoland ; Grant, t. c. p. 256 Daira Aila ; 
Bocage, Jorn. Lisb. 1904, p. 82 St. Thomas Isl. 
? Fringilla superciliosa, Vieill. N. D. xii. p. 216 (1817). 
Vidua erythrorhyncha, Swains. B. W. Afr. i. p. 176, pl. 12 (1837) Senegal. 
Vidua fuliginosa, Licht. Nomencl. p. 49 (1854). 
Vidua decora, Hartl. Ibis, 1862, p. 340 Angola. 
Estrelda carmelita, Hartl. Ibis, 1868, p. 46 Natal. 
Male in breeding plumage. Upper parts jet black with a clear white 
collar; lower back and broad edges to the tail-coverts ashy white; wing 
black, with the least and median coverts and edges of inner greater coverts 
white with a few black shafts; under surface of quills dusky black, with 
white inner edges to the basal half; under wing-coverts white, mottled 
with black on the pinion; tail black, the short feathers with white wedge- 
