258 LAGONOSTICTA BRUNNEICEPS 
Lagonosticta brunneiceps. 
Lagonosticta brunneiceps, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 277 (1890) Maragaz ; 
Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 480 (1896); Nehrkorn, Kat. Hiers. p. 125 
(1899) egg ; Grant, Ibis, 1904, p. 258 Harar; Reichen. Vog. Afr. iii. 
p. 196 (1904). 
Lagonosticta somalensis, Salvad. Mem. R. Ace. Sc. Torino, 1894, p. 557 
Somali ; Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 429 (1896). 
Lagonosticta brunneiceps somalensis, Reichen. Vég. Afr. iii. p. 197 (1904). 
Lagonosticta brunneiceps ruberrima, Reichen. Orn. Monatsh. 18938, p. 24 
Victoria Nyanza; id. Vog. Afr. iii, p. 198 (1904). 
Adult male. Upper parts brown, shading into crimson on the forehead 
and sides of crown, and the hind neck and mantle somewhat washed with 
that colour; rump, upper tail-coverts and incomplete edges to the tail- 
feathers bright crimson, remainder of the tail brownish black; under surface 
of the wings dusky brown, with the inner edges of the quills and the under 
wing-coverts buff; sides of head and neck, chin, entire throat and the chest 
crimson, shading off into dusky or sandy brown on the abdomen and under 
tail-coverts, which latter often have some white terminal edges ; on the sides 
of the chest are generally, but not always, some small white spots which 
are very variable in number. Iris reddish brown; eyelids yellow; bill red, 
with the tip, culmen, edge of upper mandible and the keel black; tarsi and 
feet dusk brown. Total length 3 inches, culmen 0:35, wing 2:0, tail 1:5, 
tarsus 0'5. Type, 9, 27. 76.8. Maragaz (Jesse). 
Adult female and young birds. Like those of L. senegala. 
The Northern Brown-naped Fire-finch ranges from Nubia 
southward to the Rovuma River, and westward to the Niger 
and Upper Congo. 
The species is represented in the British Museum by one 
of Capt. Ferryman’s specimens from Lokoja on the Niger, and 
others from the following localities: Albert Edward Nyanza, 
White Nile, Soudan, Shendi, Bogos, the type from Maragaz 
(Jesse), Abyssinia, Shoa, Somali, Lake Baringo, Kenia, Athi 
River, Machako’s, Lamu, Pangani, and Ujiji on the Upper 
Congo. With this fine series before me I cannot recognise VS. 
somalensis, Salvad., as a pale form, nor L. brunneiceps ruberrima 
Reichen., as a constant redder form, as they both appear to me 
