LAGONOSTICTA POLIONOTA 249 
by nature woodland birds, were not frequently seen. Antinori 
procured his specimens in Kordofan and Sennar, including the 
type of Habropyga rara. 
Lagonosticta polionota. 
Lagonosticta polionota, Shelley, Ibis, 1872, p. 141 Cape Coast Castle ; 
Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 280, pl. 11, fig. 2 (1890); Shelley, B. Afr. I. 
No. 422 (1896) ; Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 200 (1904). 
Adult male. Centre of forehead, crown and back of neck slate grey, with 
a very faint crimson shade; back and wings slightly browner; upper tail- 
coyerts and basal half of outer webs of tail-feathers crimson, remainder of 
tail black; under wing-coverts and the inner margins of quill whitish ; 
remainder of head, front of neck, fore-chest and flanks crimson, with a few 
white spots on the sides of the chest; sides of head shading gradually into 
the deep grey of the neck; lower breast, thighs and under tail-coverts black, 
fading into dusky ash towards the lower chest. Iris dark brown; bill deep 
blue grey ; tarsi and feet slaty brown. Total length 3:8 inches, culmen 0°5, 
wing 1:9, tail 1°6, tarsus 0°55. Type, 3,6. 3. 72. Cape Coast Castle 
(Shelley). 
Adult female. Differs in having less red on sides of head and under 
parts ; sides of head ashy like the crown, with a rosy tinge and strongly 
washed with crimson in front of eye; throat and middle breast sandy buff, 
with broad rosy edges to the feathers of the upper throat; remainder of 
throat, chest and flanks rosy red, with an underlying ashy shade on the 
base of the feathers; abdomen and under tail-coverts as in the male. Wing 
1:9. Bo, August (Kemp). 
The Fantee Fire-finch ranges from Sierra Leone to the 
Niger. 
The occurrence of this species so far north as Sierra Leone 
was first made known by Mr. Kemp, who has collected a large 
series at Tungie Bridge in June, and at Bo from March to 
September. He writes: “These Fire-finches are called by 
the Creoles here ‘Thunder-birds.’ They live in pairs, but 
some four to ten will meet to feed on any bare ground, such as 
paths, and a very favourite spot of theirs was in our compound 
at Bo, where the herbage had been closely cut and exposed the 
