248 LAGONOSTICTA MELANOGASTRA 
feathers, front and sides of breast being of that colour; primary-coverts and 
quills dark brown, washed with crimson on the outer margins of the inner 
secondaries; under wing-coverts and inner margins of quills whitish ; 
remainder of tail and chest, abdomen, thighs and under tail-coverts black ; 
no white spots on the breast. ‘Iris olive brown ; eyelids pale pink, portion 
of bill rosy red; upper mandible blackish; feet dark grey. Total length 
4 inches, culmen 0°45, wing 1:9, tail 1:9, tarsus 0°55. g , Lokoja (Forbes). 
Adult female. Differs in having much less red; head and neck greyish 
ash, with a patch of dark crimson in front of eye; chin and throat ashy 
buff, with rosy red towards the crop; mantle ashy brown, slightly shaded 
with crimson; wings brown, with scarcely any crimson on the edges of the 
feathers ; crop, front and sides of breast rosy pink; centre of chest tawny 
buff, shading into black on the abdomen and under tail-coverts. Ivis reddish ; 
upper mandible black, lower one rosy red, with the keel and tip black; feet 
dusky; wing 1:9. Tingasi (Emin). 
Immature. No red on the head, mantle and wings ; under parts nearly 
uniform pale brown, with a slight shade of pink towards the crop. Portion 
of upper and under mandible pale. ¢, 27. 8.82. Lokoja (Forbes). 
Heuglin’s Black-bellied Fire-finch ranges from the Niger 
into North-east Africa. 
The late W. A. Forbes collected two specimens at Lokoga 
on the Niger, one an immature bird in August, the other an 
adult male out of a pair in September. These are in the 
British Museum, where there are also two obtained by Emin at 
Tingasi to the west of the Upper White Nile. In this latter 
district it is apparently most abundant, having been met with 
there by Emin, at Lado, Foda and Obbo; the type was dis- 
covered by Heuglin in the Djur country and was christened 
by him Lagonosticta melanogastra in 1863; in June of the 
following year he renamed it H. hypermelas, under the false 
impression that Hstrilda melanocephala, Swains., which was 
previously named Fringilla perrein by Vieillot, belonged to 
the same genus. 
Heuglin also met with the species at Wau, Bongo and 
Dombo, in pairs or family parties, frequenting the bush and 
coarse grass. They did not mix with other Finches, and being 
