276 CRYPTOSPIZA 
bluish flesh colour. No. 73 was shot as it left its nest, which 
was built of dry grass very roughly put together, with no 
extra lining, and placed in a low stunted bush, about three 
feet from the ground. The egg is pure white. The species 
is fairly plentiful throughout the country.” All the specimens 
from other localities I have seen in Mr. Jackson’s collection 
belong to P. soudanensis. 
The Soudanese Pytelia ranges over North-east Africa from 
the neighbourhood of the Equator to 16° N. lat. 
This bird is represented in the British Museum from 
Manda Island (Jackson), Lado and Kibiro (Emin), Lake 
Stefanie (Donaldson-Smith), Shibili (Gillett), Aruweina 
(Pease), Danakil (Degan), Keren (Hsler), and the type from 
Kordofan. I have also found this form represented in Mr. 
Jackson’s collection from Lake Baringo, Uganda, and the 
Albert Nyanza. In one of his specimens, labelled ‘“ Butiaba, 
3,” the barring on the under tail-coverts is scarcely traceable, 
not being more strongly developed than in Mr. Percival’s male 
from the Shiré district; but this is the only specimen I have 
seen from north of the Equator, in which the characteristic 
bars on the under tail-coverts have not been fairly distinct. 
To this subspecies should be referred Zonogastris melba affinis, 
Elliot, and I doubt the specimens referred to P. melba by Dr. 
Reichenow from the northern parts of its range belonging to 
the typical race. 
Genus XVI. CRYPTOSPIZA. 
Bill stout, shorter than the head, as deep as broad at the nostvrils; 
culmen rounded and moderately curved; cutting edges of upper mandible 
slightly festooned near the gape; nostrils basal and hidden by the frontal 
feathers. Wing rounded; primaries 1, small, narrow, and sharply pointed ; 
2, entire, shorter than 7. Tail fan-shaped, shorter than the wing. Tarsus 
moderate, toes and claws rather long and slender; outstretched feet reach 
