PYROMELANA NIGRIVENTRIS 89 
and all have the bill shorter and stouter than in P. ladoensis, 
which latter species probably never ranges so far eastward. 
Mr. Jackson has procured a nearly full plumaged male in 
the same district at Jipi in September, 1885, where he found 
these Bishop-birds common in the ricefields, and also at Witu. 
Further inland he met with the species in full plumage at Teita 
in April, and plentiful in the long grass at the river Tigrish 
near Njemps, towards the southern end of Lake Baringo, in 
July. This is the most northern and western range known to 
me for the species. 
Pyromelana nigriventris. 
Euplectes nigriventris, Cass. Proc. Philad. Acad. 1848, p. 66 Zanzibar ; 
id. Journ. Philad. 1849, p. 242, pl. 31. 
Pyromelana nigriventris, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 230 (1890); Shelley, 
B. Afr. I. No. 344 (1896); Nehrkorn, Kat. Hiers, p. 124 (1899) egg ; 
Reichen. Vog. Afr. iil. p. 125 (1904). 
Male in breeding plumage. Forehead, crown, back, upper and under tail- 
coverts and sides of lower abdomen scarlet, the mantle slightly duller and 
more rufous; wings and tail dark brown, with narrow pale edges to the 
feathers; under wing-coverts and inner margins of the quill rufous buff; 
chin, throat, chest and centre of abdomen jet black. ‘‘ Iris brown; bill 
black ; tarsi and feet brownish flesh colour” (Fischer). Total length 4-2 
inches ; culmen 0:5; wing 2:2; tail 0°65. Mtoni (Emin). 
Female. Upper parts mottled blackish brown, with pale brown edges to 
the feathers; a broad buff eyebrow ; under parts white, shaded with brown 
on the sides of throat, lower throat, front and sides of body, and some dark 
shaft-stripes towards the crop and on the flanks. 
Male in winter. Similar in plumage to the females. 
The Black-throated Fire-backed Bishop-bird inhabits Hast 
Africa between the Zambesi and the Equator, east of 35° EH. 
long. 
The most southern range known to me for this species is 
Quilimane on the Mosambique coast, where Dr. Stuhlmann 
procured five specimens, so it is apparently abundant in that 
