200 ESTRILDA OCCIDENTALIS 
lined with a few feathers. Eggs white. It is partial to the 
vicinity of habitations.” 
Estrilda occidentalis. 
Estrilda occidentalis, Fraser and Jard, Contr. Orn. 1851, p. 156 Fer- 
nando Po. 
Estrilda astrild occidentalis, Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 180 (1904). 
Estrilda peasei, Shelley, Bull. B. O. C. xiii. pp. 74, 75 (1903) Abyssinia. 
Subspecies a. 
Estrilda astrild souse, Reichen. Vég. Afr. iii. p. 182 St. Thomas Isl. 
Estrilda astrild (non Linn.), Bocage, Jorn. Lisb. 1904, p. 81 S¢. 
Thomas Isl. 
Adult male. Very similar to H. astrild; upper parts rather dark ; 
cheeks, ear-coverts and upper throat white; remainder of throat and the 
centre of breast, down to the black abdomen, buff, with a pink shade and no 
trace of vermilion. ‘Bill waxy scarlet; feet and claws sepia.” Total 
length 4:3 inches, culmen 0:3, wing 1:75, tail 1°75, tarsus 0°55. ¢. Bo, 
June and August (Kemp.). 
Adult female. Like the male. Wing 1:75. Bo, August (Kemp). 
Type of E. peasei. Slightly paler above and a little more pink below. 
Jeffi Dunsa (Pease). 
Type of H. astrild souse. ‘ Similar to EL. astrild minor, with the upper 
parts greyer and paler ” (Reichenow). 
Fraser’s Waxbill ranges from Sierra Leone southward into 
Benguela, and eastward into Abyssinia. 
Near Sierra Leone Mr. Kemp has collected twenty-three 
specimens in May, June, July and August, showing that the 
plumage of the sexes is always alike. He writes: ‘‘ At Bo, in 
August and September, these birds were abundant in patches 
of a feathery grass called ‘ Foudie’ by the natives, who cul- 
tivate it for food. They here assemble in compact little flocks, 
with other small Weavers, to feed on the ripened seed, and on 
one occasion, with a single cartridge, I killed seven head, 
including, besides the present species, specimens of H. subflava, 
