ESTRILDA MINOR 199 
John Kirk has collected specimens in the Shiré district, Ugogo, 
at Pangani and Melinda, all of which are in the British 
Museum. Dr. Stuhlmann informs us that the native name for 
the species at Quilimane is ‘‘ Mrie,” and at Zanzibar ‘ Tongo.” 
Boéhm obtained specimens on Zanzibar Island, in Ugogo, 
at Tabora and Kakoma, and records it as abundant there, 
frequenting the bush near habitations. In the middle of 
April he found their nests in a banana plantation adjoining a 
village ; they were placed amongst the roots and rubbish at 
the base of banana stems, constructed of grass, hair, and a 
mass of feathers from the village poultry, and contained five 
white eggs. According to Fischer, the nests he found 
resembled those of Spermestes scutatus, but were more strongly 
and neatly constructed, with a shorter and flatter entrance 
passage. The eggs are white and measure 0°52 x 0°40. He 
also found one of these nests built amongst the thick foliage 
at the end of a bough of a mango-tree, some six feet from the 
ground. He never met with more than one pair making use 
of any nest; but they are sociable and fly about in flocks with 
cther species, and he has seen one perched on the same blade 
of grass in company with Quelea exthiopica. They were 
generally distributed through the country he explored from 
Bagamoyo tothe Tana River. The type is a specimen procured 
by Hildebrandt at the Voi River, some fifty miles north of 
Mombasa. ‘To this form I refer all Lord Delamere’s speci- 
mens now in the British Museum, from the Athi River, 
Nairobe, Lake Elmenteita, Likipia, and North-east Kenia ; 
Mr. Jackson’s specimens from Machako’s, Nyando Valley, 
Eldoma Ravine, and from Nandi. He records the species as 
abundant, in flocks varying in number from eight to more than 
a hundred, and he adds: “It keeps up a constant twitter when 
on the wing, but is quiet when feeding, its food consisting of 
small grass-seed. It makes a nest of fine grass, very compact, 
