PLOCEID^E AMBLYOSPIZA 8.1 



of the feathers edged with buff, wing-coverts and quills black, the 

 primaries with white bases ; tail black ; forehead white ; lores and 

 spot below eye black ; sides of face, ear-coverts, cheeks, neck, 

 throat and upper breast chocolate-brown ; lower breast, abdomen 

 and under tail-coverts dark grey, the feathers with dark shafts and 

 buff margins ; under surface of wing black with a patch of white 

 on the base of the primaries. 



Iris brown ; bill grey, the base of upper mandible black ; tarsi 

 and feet reddish-brown. 



Length 740; wing 4-00; tail 2-90; tarsus 0'95; culmen 0-90. 



Amblyospiza albifrons ? . 



Adult female. Above reddish-brown mottled with dark brown ; 

 lesser wing-coverts like the back ; remaining coverts and quills 

 brown-black edged with brown and rufous ; upper tail-coverts dark 

 brown edged with buff ; tail-feathers brown-black edged with rufous, 

 the outer tipped with white ; lores and spot below eye black ; ear- 

 coverts rufous ; cheeks and sides of neck dark brown streaked with 

 white ; under surface of body white streaked with dark brown, the 

 sides and flanks tinged with reddish, the thighs brown edged with 

 white ; axillaries and under wing-coverts pale buff-red. 



Iris dusky ; bill greenish with dusky tip ; tarsi and feet dusky. 



Length 7'00 ; wing 3-40; tail 2-40; tarsus 0-90; culmen 0-60. 



Distribution. From the Kei Eiver in Eastern Cape Colony 

 through the coast districts of Kaffraria and Natal into Zululand, 

 the Eastern Transvaal and Portuguese East Africa as far as the 

 Zambesi, and extending to the north of that river into Mosambique 

 and Nyasaland. 



Habits. This curious species is easily recognised from every 

 other South African Weaver Bird by its sombre colour, its robust 

 body, as well as by its thick and massive bill which gives it a some- 

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