PYROMELANA XANTHOMELAS 77 
collected specimens at Caconda and Quindumbo and gives the 
names by which they are known at these places, respectively, 
as ‘‘ Pinine” and “ Quisengo.” 
I have not seen a specimen from German South-west Africa, 
but the following notes by Andersson refer to the species: 
“This is a comparatively scarce bird in Damara and Great 
Namaque Lands, but is very abundant at Lake Ngami; it 
sometimes occurs in large flocks in the open country, and is 
also found in small communities in the neighbourhood of water 
and in humid situations where it breeds.” ‘The measurements 
he gives are probably taken from the specimens of P. capensis 
he collected at Cape Town, two of which are now in the 
British Museum. 
To the north of the Limpopo River P. approximans is 
probably entirely replaced by the present species, which is 
represented in the British Museum by two specimens collected 
by Mr. T. E. Buckley and Mr. Selous in Matabeleland, by 
Frank Oates’s from Inyati and Hope Fontein, by Jameson's 
from the Umfuli River, and by Sowerby’s from Fort Chi- 
quaqua in Mashonaland. There, according to Mr. Sowerby, 
it is common and mostly seen in the open country. Mr. Guy 
Marshall found it much more generally distributed than 
P. sundevalli, and not so much attached to the reed-beds, and 
he writes : ‘“‘ The nest is generally suspended from a twig over 
water and roughly but strongly built of coarse grass, the seed- 
heads of which are ingeniously twisted into the interior of 
the nest, so as to form a deep soft lining. The eggs 
(0°98 x 0°66) are of a bluish green colour, handsomely marked 
with surface blotches of both dark and light brown, and 
underlying patches of violet grey.” 
Sir John Kirk met with the species along the Zambesi and 
Shiré Rivers, and in British Central Africa specimens have 
been collected at Zomba, Milanje, Buwa, Mkukula, Katunga, 
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