VIDUA REGIA 21 
water, frequenting the high trees and the thick bush. Heuglin 
records them as ranging northward to between 16° and 17° N. 
lat., and not ascending the mountains beyond 7,000 feet ; he 
met with them in T’akah, Sennar, Kordofan and along the 
White Nile, singly or in pairs, but in the autumn more usually 
in family parties, frequenting the higher branches of trees in 
damp places and forest country, as well as the bushes in the 
more open districts, also the pasture land, hedges and plan- 
tation near habitations. The Hon. N. C. Rothschild and Mr. 
Wollaston have procured the species as far north as Shendi on 
the Nile. Mr. A. L. Butler procured a male in full plumage 
at Fachi Shoya in November, and writes, ‘‘ A much scarcer 
bird here than V. paradisea.” 
The time of the two seasonal moults to which these birds 
are subject appears to vary with the climate; the males assume 
their beautiful plumage as soon as the rainy season sets in, 
which is also the commencement of the breeding season and 
spring of the year, and retain it for about five months; thus in 
South Africa it lasts from October to March, and north of the 
Equator from the end of March to the end of July; but these 
dates do not, I think, hold as a hard and fast rule, possibly 
owing to the different age and constitution of the birds them- 
selves; but I doubt if any of these males fail to go through 
the two complete moults during the year. 
Vidua regia. 
Emberiza regia, Linn. S. N. i. p, 313 (1766) Africa. 
Vidua regia, Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 315 (1896). 
Tetreenura regia, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 209 (1890); Reichen. Vog. 
Afr. iii. p. 221 (1904). 
Shaft-tailed Bunting, Lath. Gen. Syn. ii. pt. i. p. 183 (1783). 
La Veuve a quatre Brins, Vieill. Ois. Chant. p. 59, pls. 34, 35 (1805). 
Male in breeding plumage. Forehead, crown, sides of head in front 
of the eyes, back of lower neck, back, four elongated tail-feathers, inner 
