162 SPERMESTES BICOLOR 
Mr. R. P. Currie has met with the species in Liberia, and I do 
not find any more information regarding it from the coast 
north of the Equator, but inland Dr. Ansorge has found 
it along the Ituri River. In Western Africa, to the south 
of the Line, it has been mentioned only by Marche, from 
Doumé, in Gaboon. 
In Eastern Africa its most northern range appears to be 
Zanzibar Island, where it is plentiful and known to the 
natives, according to Fischer, as the ‘Tongo simba.’ He 
met with them here frequenting the cultivated fields in parties 
of six to eight, in company with other members of the genus 
Spermestes, which they resemble in their note and breeding 
habits. He also obtained the species at Mozambique. 
In British Central Africa it has been procured by the 
Capello and Ivens at Ntenke, near Lake Bangweolo, 
by Sir Alfred Sharpe at Mtondwe, and by Mr. Whyte at 
Zomba. 
It inhabits the eastern half of South Africa to as far 
west as Bechuanaland and Natal. From the latter colony 
there are two specimens in the British Museum, obtained by 
Mr. T. L. Ayres, at Pinetown, in May and June, and this is 
all I know for certain regarding the species in South Africa, 
where it has been either overlooked or not met with by other 
naturalists, for Stark writes: ‘‘I have only occasionally met 
with this Weaver Finch, nor can I find any record of its 
habits in a state of Nature.” 
Spermestes bicolor. 
Amadina bicolor, Fraser, P. Z. 8. 1842, p. 145 Cape Palmas ; id. Zool. 
Typ. pl. 50, figs. 2, 3 (1849). 
Spermestes bicolor, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 261 (1890); Butler, 
Foreign Finches in Captivity, p. 256, pl. 46, fig. 2 (1894); Shelley, 
B. Afr. I. No. 884 (1896); Nehrkorn, Kat. Hiers. p. 125 (1899) egg ; 
Reichen, J. f. O, 1902, p. 86 Togo ; id. Vég. Afr. iii. p. 151 (1904). 
