90 PYROMELANA FRANCISCANA 
country. He also collected specimens at Mbusini in Usegua, 
and at Zanzibar, where it is known to the natives as the 
* Baniani.” Fischer records it as abundant throughout the 
coast-countries from Lindi to Lamu. Emin met with it at 
the Kingani River, and Mr. Jackson at Witu, which is the 
furthest north that I can trace the species. The type 
came from Zanzibar, and in this district Fischer procured 
several nests and eggs. The nest, according to him, much 
resembles that of P. flammiceps, and is of a lengthened oval 
shape with the opening at one side, constructed of coarse grass 
lined with fine grass, and attached, some five or six feet from 
the ground, to the reeds or thick covert in marshy places. The 
eggs in a nest are two, or sometimes three, in number; they are 
pale blue, occasionally spotted with dusky greyish brown, and 
their average measurement is 0°68 x 0°52. 
Pyromelana franciscana. 
Loxia franciscana, Isert, Schrift. Ges. nat. Fr. Berlin, 1789, p. 332, pl. 9. 
Pyromelana franciscana, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 233 (1890); Butler, 
Foreign Finches in Captivity, p. 308, pl. 57 (1894); Shelley, B. 
Afr. I. No. 841 (1896); Nehrkorn, Kat. Hiers. p. 124 (1899) egg; 
Grant, Ibis, 1904, p. 257 Shoa; Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 122 (1904). 
Euplectes franciscana, Heugl. Orn. N. O. Afr. pl. 48, figs. 4, 5 (1871) 
eggs. 
Loxia ignicolor, Vieill. Ois. Chant. p. 92, pl. 59 (1805). 
Pyromelana franciscana pusilla, Hartert, Bull. B. O. C. xi. p. 71 (1901) 
L. Stephanie. 
Male in breeding plumage. Top and sides of head, chest and abdomen 
velvety black ; neck, back, scapulars, upper tail-coverts, cheeks, chin, throat, 
under tail-coverts and sides of abdomen scarlet; wings dark brown, with 
narrow pale brown edges to the feathers, and the under surface tawny buff, 
with a large portion of the quills dusky brown; thighs tawny buff. “ Iris 
dark brown; bill black; tarsi and feet brownish flesh-colour.”’ Total length 
4:8 inches, culmen 0°45; wing 2:4; taill-4; tarsus0-7. ¢, 22.6.01. Accra. 
(Alexander). 
Female. Upper parts mottled, blackish brown, with pale brown edges 
j 
