PLOCEID^ ORTYGOSPIZA 109 



59. Ortygospiza polyzona. Bar-breasted Weaver Finch. 



Fringilla polyzona, Temm. PL Col. ii. pi. 221, fig. 3 (1823). 



Estrelda polyzona, DCS Murs, Lefebvre's Vog. Abyss, p. 117 (1845) ; 



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

 Ortygospiza polyzona, Sundev. (Efv. K. Vet.-AJcad. Fork. Stochh., 



1850, p. 98 ; Sliarpe, ed. Layard' s B. S. Afr. p. 457 (1884) ; id. 



Cat. B. M. xiii, p. 269 (1890) ; Shelley, Ibis, 1886, p. 337 ; id. B. 



Afr. i, p. 28 (1896). 



Ortygospiza polyzona. 



Description. Adult male. Above brown slightly mottled with 

 darker brown ; wings and tail brown ; the outer primary edged with 

 white, the coverts and secondaries with grey ; the outer tail-feather 

 edged with white, the next with a white streak ; forehead blackish ; 

 eyebrow and streak below eye white ; sides of neck and ear-coverts 

 grey-brown ; cheeks dusky ; chin white ; throat black ; upper breast 

 grey barred with black and white, merging into light chestnut on 

 the lower breast and buff on the abdomen ; sides and flanks grey- 

 brown barred with black and white ; lower tail- coverts buff streaked 

 with dark brown ; axillaries and under wing-coverts buff ; under 

 surface of quills dusky with pale inner margins. 



Iris bright hazel ; bill red ; legs and feet very light brown. 



Length 3-60; wing 2-00; tail 1-20; culmen 0-60; tarsus 040. 



Adult female. Eesembles the adult male, but the black mark- 

 ings on the head and throat of the former are replaced by greyish- 

 brown ; the lower surface of the body is paler, and the breast and 

 sides are barred with brown and dull white. 



Length 3-50 ; wing 2-00 ; tail 1-20. 



Distribution. This little species has a very extensive range in 

 Africa ; on the east coast from Abyssinia to Eastern Cape Colony, 

 on the west coast from Senegal to Angola. In South Africa it is 

 fairly common in the north-east of Cape Colony, in the neighbour- 

 hoods of Colesberg and Eland's Post. In the Orange Free State 

 and in the higher part of Natal it is resident and common all the 

 year round ; it is rather more local but still a common species in 



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