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COLIUSPASSER PROGNE 33 
Emberiza imperialis, Shaw in Miller’s Cimel. Phys. iii. p. 7 (1796). 
Vidua pheenicoptera, Swains. Class. B. ii. p. 112, fig. 161 (1837). 
Male in breeding plumage. Black, with a bluish black gloss on the 
edges of the feathers of the head, neck and breast; lesser wing-coverts 
orange scarlet; median coverts buff with somewhat hidden black shafts ; 
greater coverts and the secondaries with buff edges; primaries with the 
ends paler and terminal buff edges; remainder of the under surface of the 
wing black. ‘Iris brown; bill light bluish ash; feet dark brown” (Stark). 
Total length 20°5 inches, culmen 0°7, wing 5:3, tail 16, tarsus 1:05. 
3, 28. 10. 81. 
Natal (EK. A. Butler). 
Adult female. Upper parts mottled, the feathers all being brownish 
black with broad pale brown edges, of a slightly more tawny shade on the 
mantle, and inclining to buff on the greater wing-coverts ; inner lining of the 
wings ashy-brown, with the coverts black. Under parts buff, shaded with 
brown and with brown shaft-stripes on the middle and lower throat, as well 
as on the front and sides of the breast. ‘‘ Iris dark hazei; bill horn brown ; 
tarsi and feet pinkish brown.” Total length 6:1 inches, culmen 0:65, 
wing 3:7, tail2-5, tarsus 0°95. 9, 12.6.76. Natal (T. EK. Buckley). 
Male adult in winter plumage. Resembles the female in the form of 
the tail as well as in the colouring of the head, neck, body and scapulars, but 
differs in the wing being similar to that of the male in breeding plumage, only 
with the pale edges of the greater coverts and secondaries broader. 
Immature male. Differs from the last phase and resembles the female in 
the colouring of the wing, with the exception of the lesser wing-coverts, which 
have broad yellowish edges. 
The Kaffir Great-tailed Whydah ranges from Benguela into 
Eastern South Africa from Cape Colony to the Transvaal. 
In Western Africa it is known from Caconda in Benguela, 
where Anchieta procured two adults and two young males, while 
at Humpata in Mossammedes, Van der Kellen also obtained 
a specimen. 
To the south of the Cunene River I do not find the species 
recorded from any locality to the west of 25° H. long.; but 
Layard informs us that Mr. Arnold sent him several specimens 
from Colesberg, and according to Mr. Rickard it is common 
both at Port Elizabeth and East London, and we may add 
Natal, Zululand, the Orange River Colony and the Transvaal ; 
but according to Mr. T’. Ayres it does not approach the Natal 
[October, 1904, 3 
