yb PLOCEID^E LAGONOSTICTA 



Length 5-50; wing 2-20; tail 2-00; tarsus 0-60; culmen 0-37. 



Adult female. Browner than the male ; throat brown tinged 

 with crimson ; breast brown slightly tinged with red and spotted 

 with white. 



Distribution. From Inhambane in Gazaland, where, according 

 to Mr. H. F. Francis, it is not uncommon, to the Zambesi (Kirk) ; 

 Nyasaland (Whyte) ; Malindi, the Usambara hills and Zanzibar 

 in East Africa (Kirk) ; extending to the Great Lakes of Central 

 Africa. 



Habits. Mr. H. F. Francis writes of the habits of this species 

 near Inhambane as follows : " It frequents thick undergrowth, and 

 apparently finds its food among the leaves on the ground, as it is 

 generally seen scratching about there." 



51. Lagonosticta margaritata. Verreaux's Buddy Waxbill. 



Spermophaga margaritata, StricM. Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist, xiii, p. 



418, pi. 10 (1844). 



Estrelda margaritata, Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 198 (1867). 

 Hypargus margaritatus, Finsch and Hartl. Vog. Ostafr. p. 449 (1870) ; 



Sharpe, ed. Layard's B. 8. Afr. p. 476 (1884) ; Shelley, Ibis, 1886, 



p. 317 ; id. B. Afr. i, p. 32 (1896). 

 Lagonosticta margaritata, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii, p. 275 (1890). 



Description. Adult. " The whole upper parts of this bird are 

 rich ferruginous brown, except the quills, which are dusky within ; 

 the upper tail-coverts and outer margins of the rectrices dull vinous 

 red, and their inner webs and apical portions black. The circuit 

 of the eyes, cheeks, throat and breast pale claret red, rest of lower 

 parts deep black, spotted next the breast and on the sides with 

 large pearl-like spots the colour of peach-blossom, of which two 

 are placed transversely and subterminally on each feather " 

 (Strickland). 



Total length 4-75 ; beak to gape 0-45 ; to front 0-40 ; width 

 0-20 ; height 0-25 ; wing 2-10 ; tarsus O60. 



Distribution. In " The Annals and Magazine of Natural 

 History" (vol. xiii, p. 418) Mr. H. E. Strickland writes: "This 

 beautiful little bird was purchased at Cape Town, and was said 

 to have been brought from Madagascar." 



Dr. Sharpe writes in his edition of " Layard's Birds of South 

 Africa" (p. 476) : " Mr. J. Verreaux, however, assures us that his 

 specimens, whence the figure in Des Mur's ' Iconographie ' was 



