208 ESTRILDA SUBFLAVA 
the Gambia (Marche) and Casamanse (Verreaux). Near 
Sierra Leone Mr. Kemp collected twenty specimens at Jag- 
bamah and Bo, “ where it was feeding in company with other 
small Weavers on the seed of a feathery grass, but is less 
common than H. occidentalis.” It is further represented in the 
British Museum by one of Forbes’s specimens from Shongo 
on the Niger, fourteen examples from the White Nile district, 
and three from Southern Abyssinia. 
Mr. Jackson has obtained a richly coloured specimen in 
Uganda, and the species appears to be abundant along the Nile 
to as far south as Lado, where Emin has collected many 
specimens: others have been obtained at the mouth of the 
Zeraf River, by Capt. Dunn, and near Fashoda and Kaka, 
by Mr. Hawker, who writes: ‘Occurs in small flocks ; I never 
noticed it north of Kaka.” 
Heuglin obtained the type of his Sporeginthus miniatus at 
the Gazelle River; he also met with the species on Req Island, 
and in Central Abyssinia on the Dembea Plains, living in small 
parties of five to ten, apparently preferring the tops of the 
higher trees, and uttering their note during flight. In Southern 
Abyssinia it has been procured by Lord Lovat. Dr. Butler, 
in his ‘‘ Foreign Finches in Captivity,” quotes from Dr. Russ 
the following interesting remarks: ‘ With proper attention 
it keeps in good health in the dealers’ cages for years, only it 
usually becomes black. It wonderfully soon takes steps to 
breed, whether flying at large in a bird room, or in a small 
cage. The power of production of this species is astounding ; 
the first pair in my bird-room bred seven times in vain, and 
only the eighth time, when small fresh ants’ eggs had been 
obtained, was a brood of five young ones satisfactorily reared. 
A pair belonging to Dr. Rey, of Halle, produced fifty-four 
young in the course of one year; however, all died; besides 
this, sixty-seven eggs were taken away. The love dance is 
