SPERMESTES FRINGILLOIDES 161 
Adult male. Entire head, and front half of the neck, glossy black, 
fading into dull blackish brown on the back of the neck; upper and 
middle back and the wings dark brown; a few indistinct pale brown shaft- 
stripes on the upper back, and a few distinct white streaks on the median 
wing-coverts ; under wing-coverts buffy white, mottled with brownish at the 
bend of the wing; rump, upper tail-coverts and tail entirely black ; crop, 
breast and under tail-coverts white; sides of chest black, somewhat mottled 
with brown and buff towards the abdomen; thighs black and white. ‘Iris 
brownish red; upper mandible brownish black; lower one slaty blue, with 
the edges and tip darker.” Total length 4:5 inches, culmen 0:6, wing 2°25, 
tail 1:5, tarsus 0:6. ¢g, 13.4.77, Zanzibar. (Fischer). 
Adult female. Similar to the male. Wing 22. 9,16.4.77. Zanzibar 
(Fischer). 
The Magpie Mannikin ranges from Senegambia and 
Zanzibar southward into Natal. 
The type of the species came from Senegambia, and there 
are several specimens in the British Museum from the Gambia. 
Near Sierra Leone, Mr. Robin Kemp informs me, “ These 
Mannikins are locally abundant, associating freely with NS. 
cuculiatus. At Rotifunk there was a large colony of them, 
roosting and nesting in mango, lime and orange trees, in the 
enclosed compound which contained our bungalows. How- 
ever, at Bo, eighty miles inland, saw it once only during two 
years’ observation, when I met with three of these birds 
together, on a rice-farm of a previous year.’ In Liberia 
Dr. Biittikofer found the species breeding in November. 
The nests were usually placed, singly, in forks of fruit-trees, 
at five to ten feet from the ground, and were very similar 
to those of other species of Spermestes, tolerably large, 
constructed of grass and various materials, lined with the 
softer portions of the grass, and were oval in form, with an 
entrance at the side. The eggs, generally six in number, 
were pure white, and measured 0°6 x 0°44, Fischer gives 
a similar description of a nest of this species, containing 
six white egos, which he found on the island of Zanzibar. 
(October, 1904, 11 
