96 PYROMELANA ORIX 
The Cape Red Bishop-bird ranges from Angola and the 
Limpopo River to the Cape of Good Hope. 
In the Lisbon Museum there is a specimen labelled 
* Angola (Toulson),” and several from Catumbella, Capan- 
gombe, Huilla and Humbe, collected by Anchieta, who 
informs us that it is known to the natives at Catumbella as 
the “ Quisengo.” In Western South Africa, according to 
Andersson, “This very handsome bird is abundant at Lake 
Ngami and in Ondonga, and though rarer in Damara and 
Great Namaqualand, it is found in those countries also, con- 
eregating in small communities and frequenting moist situa- 
tions, where it breeds in January and February. 
“Tn Ondonga its nest may be found in those months in 
almost every palm bush; the nest is very pretty, airy and 
graceful, somewhat oval in form, and composed of threads 
torn from the edges of the branches of young palms. Some 
nests are thickly lined, whilst others are quite bare within; in 
the latter the eggs may be seen from the outside; but not- 
withstanding the seeming looseness with which the threads are 
interwoven, the apparently frail structure is in reality very 
strong. The eggs are of a bluish colour, and from three to 
four in number.” 
In the British Museum the species is represented by 
specimens from the Kuil River in Cape Colony, Eland’s Post, 
Bloemfontein, the Umgeni River near Durban, Weenen, 
Maritzburg and Potchefstroom ; the other specimens referred 
to this species in the “Catalogue of Birds,” all belong to 
P. sundevalli. 
According to Layard, it confines itself to certain favourite 
spots, and near Cape Town the only place known to him for 
it was the swampy ground near the Royal Observatory; but 
he calls |it not an uncommon bird throughout Cape Colony, 
and Mr. Barratt found it similarly distributed over the Orange 
