PLOCEID.E SPEEMESTES 111 



Key to the Species. 



a. Larger; wing exceeding 2*25 S. fringilloides, p.lll. 



b. Smaller ; wing under 2'00. 



a 1 . Back brown ; a patch of glossy green on the 



scapulars..., S. scutatus, p. 112. 



6 l . Back chestnut, contrasting with the black 



head 8. nigriceps, p. 113. 



Spermestes fringilloides. 



60. Spermestes fringilloides. Pied Weaver Finch. 



Ploceus fringilloides, Lafr. Mag. de Zool. 1835, pi. 48. 



Spermestes fringilloides, Hartlaub, Orn. W. Afr. p. 147 (1857) ; Shelley, 



Ibis, 1886, p. 308 ; id. B. Afr. i. p. 28 (1896). 

 Amaurestes fringilloides, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii, p. 267 (1890) ; Butler, 



Foreign Finches, p. 264, pi. $ , ? (1894). 



Description. Adult female. Head, nape, sides of neck and face, 

 cheeks and throat glossy black ; back and wings brown, the upper 

 back tinged with chocolate-colour and dotted with small round spots 

 of yellow, some of the lesser wing-coverts with white shafts ; rump, 

 upper tail-coverts and tail black ; under surface of body white, 

 with a patch of black on each side of chest, of rufous on each flank, 

 the sides and flanks streaked with black ; outer aspect of thighs 

 black ; the abdomen, flanks and under tail-coverts tinged with pale 

 rufous ; axillaries and under tail-coverts buff. 



Iris dark red-brown ; upper mandible blackish, the lower horn- 

 blue ; legs and feet blue-black. 



Length 5-10; wing 2-40; tail 1-60; tarsus 0-60; culmen 0-60. 



Adult male. Eesembles the female in plumage, but the black 

 patch on each side of the chest is larger. 



Distribution. A resident in Natal, Zululand, Portuguese East 

 Africa and the Eastern Transvaal, extending northward into 

 Nyasaland and German East Africa as far as Zanzibar, and west- 

 ward into Bechuanaland. In West Africa this species is recorded 

 from Senegambia and the Gambia Eiver district. 



