COLIUSPASSER ARDENS 45 
Messrs Butler, Feilden and Reid write from Natal: ‘ Gener- 
ally distributed and fairly common. Some specimens of the 
male were obtained near Newcastle in November, with the 
collar orange rather than scarlet, but this is doubtless only an 
intermediate stage.” In Zululand the Messrs. Woodward 
found flocks of the species in the “ Mealie-gardens,”’ and met 
with a nest “in a clump of tall grass, fastened to the stalks; 
it was a small domed structure, composed of fine grass, and 
contained little white speckled eggs.” 
In the Transvaal and Matabeleland the species is somewhat 
local but fairly common, according to Stark. Mr. Barratt shot 
specimens at Potchefstroom, Rustenberg and near Pretoria, 
and Mr. T’, Ayres observed it in the Lydenburg district. In 
Mashonaland, Mr. Guy Marshall found the species only in large 
reedy swamps, where, however, it is fairly plentiful, though 
very wary, and writes: ‘‘ The male, when showing off, expands 
the feathers of his curiously constructed tail vertically, so as 
to make it appear as deep as possible. Along the Upper 
Zambesi Mr. Boyd Alexander procured a_ specimen at 
Zumba, and Capello and Ivens met with it at Caponda 
in about 15° 8S. lat. Sir John Kirk found the species 
tolerably common in the Shiré Valley, near Chibisa, and 
specimens have been collected in Nyasaland at Zomba, Mlosa, 
Milanji and Mpimbi. Béhm obtained the species at Karema, 
Mauh and Qua-Mpara; Sir John Kirk at Mamboio and in 
Ugogo ; Emin at Mandera in Neuru; Neumann at Pangani; 
Ansore in Unyoro; Jackson from Mararu in Teita and 
from Ntebbi in Uganda. On the western side of Victoria 
Nyanza Dr. Reichenow records it from the island of Uhambiri 
and from Bukoba, and I cannot trace the range of this species 
further north or west in this direction, for in the Upper White 
Nile district towards Lado it appears to be entirely replaced 
by the West African C. concolor. 
