THK PARADISE WHYDAH. 271 



himself strictly to breeding a very limited number of species ; sub- 

 stituting these for others as soon as he had succeeded. 



Illustration of the male from a specimen in the author's collection, 

 which died just as it commenced its change into winter plumage. 



THE PARADISE WHYDAH. 



Steganura paradisea, LINN. 



ALSO a much imported and easily obtainable bird, which, according 

 to Dr. Sharpe, inhabits " Senegambia, N.E. Africa below 17 N. 

 lat. to Shoa and the White-Nile region ; East Africa from the Tana 

 River to Zanzibar, and inland to Lake Tanganyika ; Mozambique, and 

 the Zambesi south to the Transvaal, and west from Lake Ngami to 

 Damara-Land and Angola." 



The male bird, when in colour, has the head and throat black ; 

 the back of the neck, with a broad belt of glossy reddish mahogany, 

 which passes down the sides of the neck, and unites with the same 

 colouring on the breast, but there it passes gradually into the buff 

 whitish colouring of the abdomen ; back, shoulders, wing-coverts, tail, 

 thighs and under tail-coverts black; croup white; flight feathers brown; 

 tail-feathers barred with more intense black, visible in certain lights. 

 Length, exclusive of the long tail plumes (which vary with age), 5f 

 inches. Beak black, legs brown, iris dark brown. 



The female above, rusty brownish with black shaft-streaks to the 

 feathers ; a longitudinal buinsh white stripe on the top of the head, 

 the crown slightly black-streaked ; a broad pale buff eye-brow ; lores 

 and feathers round the eye white; ear-coverts pale sandy buff, margined 

 broadly above with black ; flights and tail-feathers blackish brown ; 

 wing-coverts brown, broadly margined externally with rusty brown, the 

 upper coverts with narrow isabelline white edges; upper tail-coverts 

 black with isabelline white borders ; cheeks and throat buff- whitish ; 

 sides of neck more tawny and streaked with black; throat and breast 



