154 PHILETAIRUS DORSALIS 
the hen sits so close that it may be taken with the hand off 
its eggs. The incubation, which is performed entirely by the 
female, lasts eleven days, and the young remain in the nest 
for eight or nine days. He once met with a pair of Spermestes 
cucullatus breeding in the middle of a colony of these birds. 
The species has been found nesting in May at Elgeyo, by 
Mr. Jackson, who writes: “ The nest has two entrances, one 
of which is stopped up when the hen is about to lay. At other 
times it is used for roosting.” He also obtained the species at 
Machako’s. In the intervening country it has been met with 
by Dr. Ansorge at Campi-ya-Simba, and by Lord Delamere at 
the Athi River and at Larabat. Mr. Oscar Neumann records 
the species from the Kikuyu country and from Nguruman. 
Between the latter place and the Motiom Mountains, the most 
southern range known for the species, Fischer found it in 
pairs, or some half-dozen together feeding on the ground, 
which was covered with high grass, and in larger flocks in the 
more open country. In the Motiom highlands it was scarce, 
but a colony of ten pairs were breeding there at Wasso- 
Neibor. 
Philetairus dorsalis. 
Nigrita dorsalis, Reichen. J. f. O. 1887, p. 71 Wembere, Nassa. 
Phileterus dorsalis, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 251 (1890); Shelley, 
B. Afr. I. No. 376 (1896). 
Pseudonigrita dorsalis, Reichen. Vég. Afr. iii. p. 172 (1904). 
Nigrita canidorsalis (Japs. cal.), Reichen. J. f. O. 1887, p. 41. 
Type. Similar to P. arnaudi, but differing in its greyer back, more 
dusky grey scapulars, pale grey head, and the absence of any black band on 
the tail; lores black. 
Forehead, crown and nape pale grey; mantle and scapulars dusky 
grey; lesser wing-coverts blackish grey; lores black; a ring of whitish 
feathers round the eye; remainder of sides of head, neck, rump, entire 
under parts, tail and greater wing-coverts pale brown; primary-coverts 
and quills black; median coverts black, edged with pale brown, this shade 
extending over the entire outer web of the innermost feathers ; under 
