40 COLIUSPASSER ARDENS 
evidently playing, as it darted several times into the air to a 
height of about four feet, and then darted down again. Their 
‘ playing-ground’ is a work of some time, as the grass is all 
worn away in an irregular circle, with the exception of a small 
tuft left in the centre with two or three little recesses at the 
base, which are evidently the result of the birds’ play.” On 
the Mau Plateau (8,700 feet) he procured a male in breeding 
plumage on August 3, and remarks: “ Plentiful in boggy 
hollows, where the grass is long. I saw this bird at its game 
of jumping up and down.” 
In Nandi, in April, he shot a male, female and young bird 
out of a large flock, and writes: “Still in flocks, consisting 
mostly of males in mottled plumage.” 
The species has not been recorded from Somaliland, but 
Lord Lovat shot three specimens at Chelunco, Baroma and 
Jawaha, within 150 miles west-south-west of Berbera. In Shoa 
Antinori collected a large series from April to September. 
Dr. Blanford met with the species on two occasions only 
in the highlands of Abyssinia near Antalo and Agula, and 
Heuglin found it in flocks with C. macrourus near Adowa and 
Aksum, in the marshy districts and the cultivated lands near 
the farms. The type of the species and the type of C. tor- 
quatus, Riipp., both came from the North Abyssinian district. 
Coliuspasser ardens. 
Fringilla ardens, Bodd. Tabl. Pl. Enl. p. 39 (1783) Cape Colony. 
Coliuspasser ardens, Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 318 (1896); Reichen. Vég. 
Afr. iii. p. 135 (1904) ; Shortridge, Ibis, 1904, p. 178 Pondoland. 
Penthetria ardens, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 215 (1890). 
Emberiza signata, Scop. Del. Faun. et Flor. Insubr. ii. p. 95 (1786). 
Emberiza panayensis, Gm. S. N. ii. p. 885 (1788). 
Vidua lenocinia, Less. Traité, p. 487 (1831) Cape Colony. 
Vidua rubritorques, Swains. B. W. Afr. i. p. 174 (1837). 
Vidua torquata, Less. Compl. Buff. viii. p. 278 (1837) Cape. 
Penthetria auricollis, Licht. Nomenel. p. 49 (1854). 
