PYROMELANA ORIX 95 
feathers, which droop over and almost hide the tail; but 
none of the feathers of the head, back, breast and belly 
are lost, they simply undergo a gradual change of colour.” 
The late Mr. J. H. Gurney, in 1882, gives an interesting 
account of a specimen of P. franciscana he had as a cage-bird, 
which, in 1880, acquired its gorgeous breeding dress fully and 
completely, but when this was lost it was exchanged for 
a decidedly melanistic one. In the following year it again 
assumed the ordinary bright breeding plumage without any 
abnormal coloration, but on losing it, once more became 
melanistic. 
—Enrvle ct. 
Pyromelana orix. 
Emberiza orix, Linn. 8. N. (x.) p. 177 (1758); 8S. N. (xii.) i. p. 309 
(1766). 
Pyromelana orix, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 230 (1890); Butler, Foreign 
Finches in Captivity, p. 304, pl. 56 (1894); Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 
343 (1896); Whitehead, Ibis, 1903, p. 224 Orange R.; Shortridge, 
Ibis, 1904, p. 178 Pondoland ; Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 120 (1904). 
Euplectes pseudoryx, Reichenb. Singv. p. 56, figs. 200, 202 (1863). 
EKuplectes edwardsi, Reichenb. t. c. p. 57. 
Male in breeding plumage. General plumage vermilion, of a slightly 
duller and more rufous shade on the mantle; scapulars with broad angular 
blackish centres; front two-thirds of crown, sides of head, chin, upper 
throat, chest and middle of abdomen black; wings and tail dark brown, with 
narrow pale edges to the feathers ; under wing-coverts, inner margins of the 
quills and the thighs rufous buff. “Iris dark brown; bill black; legs light 
brown.” Total length 5:1 inches, culmen 0-6, wing 3:0, tail 1-7, tarsus 0°8. 
Transvaal (T. E. Buckley). 
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 and lower half of the throat, and front and sides of body, most 
of which feathers have obscure darker shaft-stripes. Wing 2°65." 9, 18.6. 81. 
Neweastle (H. A. Butler). 
Adult male in winter. Similar to the female, but with the stripes on 
the throat and hody more strongly marked, Wing 2°75. g, 21. 7. 75. 
Lower Umgeni R. (T. L, Ayres). 
