304 ZOOLOGICAL RESULTS 01' THE RTJWENZORJ EXPEDITION. 



Adult male and female. Iris dark brown or dark hazel; bill scarlet or red; feet 

 black. 



Immature male. Iris dark brown ; bill and feet brown. 



[The White-breasted Whydah was met with throughout the journey from Victoria 

 Nyanza to the edge of the Eturi Forest. It was most amusing to watch the male of 

 this species escorting his harem. In a very excited and fussy manner he would fly from 

 bush to bush or hover around the females with a curious jumpy flight, all the time 

 keeping up a continuous twittering and chirping. — B. B. W.~\ 



Family Fbingillidj;. 



Passer diffusus Smith. 



Passer diffusus Shelley, B. Afr. iii. p. 251 (1902) ; Grant, Ibis, 1908, p. 279 [Upper Congo]. 

 Passer griseus Vieill. Nov. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xii. p. 198 (1817) ; Reich. Viig. Afr. iii. p. 230 



(1904). 

 Passer diffusus ugandte and P. d. Occident alls Hartert, Nov. Zool. vii. p. 44 (1900). 



a. 6 . 60 miles W. of Entebbe, 3700 ft., 29th Nov. [No. 3015. B. B. W.] 



b. 2. 130 miles W. of Entebbe, 4000 ft., 10th Dec. [No. 2028. <?. £.] 



c. 2 ■ Mubuku Valley, E. Ruwenzori, 7000 ft., 30th Jan. [No. 2126. G. /,.] 



d. e. cj ? . Mubuku Valley, E. Ruwenzori, 5000 ft., 22nd & 23rd March. 

 [Nos. 1405. D. C. ; 2236. G. £.] 



/. «y . Mokia, S.E. Euwenzori, 3400 ft., 30th April. [No. 2306. G. L.] 

 g, h. t? et (J juv. Mokia, S.E. Ruwenzori, 3400 ft., 15th & 22nd May. 

 [Nos. 329, 353. B. E. D.] 



i. rf . Fort Beni, Semliki Valley, 3000 ft., 19th July. [No. 3504. B. B. IV.] 



Adult. Iris brown or reddish-brown ; bill black ; feet brown. 



The specimens in the present collection lead me to believe that Captain Shelley may 

 be right in uniting P. swainsoni (Riipp.) (= Passer griseus abyssinicus Neum.) with 

 P. diffusus Smith. Certainly the birds procured in the Mubuku Valley (speci- 

 mens c-e) closely approach the Abyssinian form in the greyer colour of their underparts 

 and in the absence of a distinct white patch on the throat. The male has the 

 underparts grey as in P. swainsoni, but the two females have the belly white 

 as in typical P. diffusus, and are only to be separated from that form by the colour 

 of the throat, which, though somewhat paler than the cheeks, is not pure white. 

 Thus we find that the birds from the Mubuku Valley (5000-7000 ft.) agree 

 with P. swainsoni from the highlands of Abyssinia, while the specimens from 

 Entebbe, S.E. Ruwenzori, and Fort Beni do not differ from ordinary white-throat ed 

 examples of P. diffusus. 



The specimen from Fort Beni appears to be an old bird and has the top of the 



