48 COLIUSPASSER ALBONOTATUS 
Bradshaw’s from the Makalaka Country, and several of Frank 
Oates’s from the southern tributaries of the Zambesi. 
At Zumbo on the Zambesi, on November 7, Captain 
Alexander met with ‘‘a small flock, consisting entirely of 
male birds in full winter plumage. They frequented a stony, 
bush-grown locality near the village, and hardly a day passed 
without our finding them in the same spot. It is a remarkable- 
looking Weaver, the bar of white on the wings as it takes to 
flight at once attracts attention. Beyond Zumbo, on Decem- 
ber 24, we observed for the first time a small party of males in 
full breeding dress. At first it was hard to realise that they 
belonged to the same species as those we had seen at Zumbo. 
For one thing, their habits seemed to have altogether changed, 
as instead of pottering about among bushes and getting up 
almost at one’s feet, they resorted to the extensive marshy 
reed-beds, and were as wild as Hawks, travelling with a strong 
flight and as straight as a die for a considerable distance 
before alighting upon the next group of reed-heads. Their 
presence in this black velvety plumage came to us all the more 
as a surprise, since from the time of leaving Zumbo we never 
came across any individuals in the transitional stage.” 
During the Livingstone Expedition Sir John Kirk saw the 
species in a marsh by the Zambesi and brought home a 
specimen from the Shiré River. In this latter district, towards 
Lake Nyasa, specimens have been procured by Mr. Alexander 
Whyte at Mpimbe and Zomba, and by Sir Alfred Sharpe at 
Dedza in Angoniland; further north, specimens have been 
collected by Bohm at Katapana, to the west of Lake Moero, 
by Fischer at Lindi on the coast, and by Kmin in the Ugogo 
country. 
The egg is described by Mr. Nehrkorn as of a deep blue, 
with dull red and violet spots clustered towards the thick end, 
and measuring 0°8 x 0°58. 
