UROBRACHYA TRAVERSII 67 
in noisy parties of from six to ten, frequenting the heads of the 
high grass. They have a melancholy flute-like note. The 
moults take place in July and November. The species has 
also been procured by him at Port Rek, by Antinori in the 
Kidsh country, and by Emin at Babira, Bora and Lado. Mr. 
Hawker met with these Whydahs at Fashoda and Kaka in 
flocks, frequenting the recently burnt ground near the river 
and the swamps; and in April and May the males were all 
in the brown winter plumage. Capt. Stanley Flower also 
mentions seeing flocks of hundreds of these birds in the long 
dry grass by the White Nile, near Kaka, and I have received 
the following notes from Mr. A. L. Butler: ‘In February and 
March, 1902, I found it common in moderate-sized flocks from 
Kaka to Fashoda, up the Bahr-el-Gazel to Meshra-er-Rek, and 
also along the river-edge. In the desolate swamps of the 
‘Sudd,’ where there was no mixture of dry ground, I never 
saw it. These birds have a heavy flopping flight.” 
Sir Harry Johnston procured at Tarangola, in West Ankole, 
two male birds in the brown dress, the types of U. media, 
Sharpe; these specimens have the plumage more strongly 
shaded with rufous than any others I have seen, but a some- 
what similar variation in colour is to be met with in females 
collected by Mr. Jackson at Ntebbi, and is probably a sign of 
immaturity, or may be caused by rust in the water. 
Urobrachya traversii. 
Urobrachya traversii, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Genoa, 1888, p. 287 Shoa ; 
Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 226 (1890); Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 331 
(1896) Grant, Ibis, 1904, p. 257 Shoa. 
Urobrachya phcenicea traversii, Reichen. Vég. Afr. iii. p. 132 (1904). 
Male in breeding plumage. Velvety black, with the lesser wing-coverts 
reddish orange, fading into sulphur yellow towards the white basal half 
of these feathers; primary-coverts, greater and median-coverts (with the 
