LAGONOSTICTA CONGICA 251 
This is apparently the most abundant of the Fire-finches in 
Nyasaland, for Mr. Alexander Whyte procured specimens at 
Zomba in February, and from June to November, and others 
on the Nyika plateau and on Mount Mlosa. There is a speci- 
men from Dar-es-Saam (Kirk) in the British Museum. Hilde- 
brandt met with it at Mombasa and in Ukamba, and Mr. 
Jackson observed it for the first time at Nandi, July, 1896, 
and just two years later found it “ plentiful in the vicinity of 
the Ichaka River,” and procured it at Kakamega in Kavirondo. 
Lord Delamere collected specimens at Nairobe and the Gessima 
River, which are now in the British Museum. 
The type was discovered by Heuglin at Keren, the most 
northern range known for these Fire-finches ; here he found 
them in the highlands between 4,000 and 5,000 feet, living 
in pairs, and he also observed them in the warmer valleys 
of Gallaland. 
Lagonosticta congica. 
Lagonosticta congica, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 280, pl. 11, fig. 3 (1890) 
pt. Kassongo ; Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 421 (1896) ; Reichen. Vég. Afr. 
iii. p. 199 (1904). 
Type. Forehead, crown and back of head dusky grey, with no red shade, 
back and wings dark brown; upper tail-coverts and sides of basal half of 
tail-feathers crimson, remainder of tail black ; under wing-coverts and inner 
margins to the quills buff; sides of head and neck ashy grey, shading into 
rosy pink on sides of forehead, front of eyes, cheeks and throat; the ear- 
coverts faintly tinted with that colour; chin, throat, chest and flanks buffy 
brown, strongly washed with rosy pink and shading into black on the 
abdomen, thighs and under tail-coverts; a few white spots on the sides of 
the chest. ‘‘ Ivis brown; bill and legs blackish ” (Lovat). Total length 4:0 
inches, culmen 0:45, wing 1°8, tail 1:5, tarsus 0°55. Kassongo (Bohndorff). 
Sharpe’s Black-billed Fire-finch ranges through the Congo 
and Upper White Nile districts into Southern Abyssinia. 
Dr. Reichenow refers to this species specimens from 
