88 PYROMELANA DIADEMATA 
and remarks that their spring moult takes place in March. 
His specimens, on account of their large size, I refer to this 
species, to which certainly belongs P. taha intercedens procured 
in the Arusi district of Gallaland. 
Pyromelana diademata. 
Euplectes diadematus, Fisch. and Reichen. Orn. Centralbl. 1878, p. 264; 
id. J. f. O. 1878, p. 354, pl. 2, fig. 4 Melinda. 
Pyromelana diademata, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 236 (1890); Shelley 
B. Afr. I. No. 345 (1896) ; Reichen. Vog. Afr. ili. p. 117 (1904). 
Male in breeding plumage. Forehead and front of the crown yellowish 
scarlet ; remainder of the head and the neck black, like the chest; upper 
back and scapulars yellow, with dusky brown centres to the feathers ; 
remainder of the back, upper and under tail-coverts, sides of the abdomen 
and the vent bright canary yellow; thighs sandy buff; wings and tail dark 
brown, with pale edges to the feathers, shaded with yellow on the lesser 
coverts and margins of the quills ; under surface of wings, with the coverts and 
inner edges of the quills sandy buff. Ivis brown; bill black; tarsi shrimp 
brown, toes darker. Total length 4:5 inches, culmen 0°45, wing 2°30, 
tail 1:5, tarsus O°7. g, 14. 6.91. Witu (Jackson). 
Adult female. Very similar to that of P. franciscana, from which it may 
generally be distinguished by haying a yellow shade on the edges of the 
quills and by the bill being slightly shorter and stouter. Wing 2-2. 
Adult male in winter. Similar in plumage to the female and also with 
the bill pale horn colour, rather darker brown towards the culmen. 
The Fire-fronted Bishop-bird inhabits Kast Africa between 
6° S. lat. and 1° N. lat., from Pangani to Lake Baringo. 
Fischer found these birds common in the cornfields near 
the town of Pangani, and known to the natives at Melinda 
and on Lamu Island as the ‘* Mbara.” 
Sir John Kirk collected six specimens in winter plumage 
at Lamu, which are now in the British Museum, where they 
were referred to P. ladoensis, which, when in the dull brown 
plumage, they much resemble in colouring as well as in size ; 
one of these specimens has a trace of the red frontal patch 
wrath 
