PLOCEID^ SPERMESTES 113 



blackish glossed with green and purple ; sides of neck brown ; upper 

 breast brownish-black ; lower breast and abdomen pure white, a 

 black patch on the sides of body ; under tail-coverts white slightly 

 barred with wavy lines of brown ; edge of wing dusky ; axillaries 

 and under wing-coverts buff. 



Iris brown ; upper mandible black, the lower ash-colour ; legs 

 and feet dark brown. 



Length 3-60; wing 1-90; tail 1-20 ; tarsus O50; culmen 0-40. 



Adult female. Similar to the adult male in plumage. 



Young. Above chocolate- brown ; wings dusky-brown ; crown, 

 sides of face and ear-coverts sooty-brown; cheeks and throat ash- 

 brown ; abdomen dull white ; remaining under surface pale reddish- 

 brown. 



Distribution. An uncertain and irregular migrant to Eastern 

 Cape Colony, but a resident in Natal, ranging northward through 

 the Transvaal to the Zambesi, thence through Nyasaland to the 

 Congo Eegion, and as far north as 16 N. Lat. Found also in the 

 Comoro Islands. 



Habits. These pretty little Weaver Finches are in Natal usually 

 met with in small parties of from six to a dozen in the* more open 

 "Bush" as well as in gardens. They spend much of their time 

 on the ground searching for small seeds, but frequently perch on 

 bushes and occasionally on tall trees. They are shyer than the 

 majority of the small Weaver Finches, and if disturbed once or 

 twice fly off to a distance. Their note is a soft and gentle twitter. 

 A nest found near Pinetown in November was built near the ex- 

 tremity of the lower horizontal limb of a large tree, at the edge of 

 a clearing in the " Bush." It was about ten feet above the ground 

 and was domed, with a small side opening. It was somewhat 

 loosely built of fine dry grass lined with the soft flowering tops. 

 The eggs, four in number, are pure white and measure 0*52 x 0*45. 



62. Spermestes nigriceps. Rufous-backed Weaver Finch. 



Spermestes nigriceps, Cassin, Proc. Pliilad. Acad. 1852, p. 185 ; 



Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii, p. 263 (1890) ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 28 



(1896). 

 Spermestes rufodorsalis, Peters, Journ. f. Ornith, 1863, p. 401 ; Sharpe, 



ed. Layard's B. S. Afr. p. 456 (1884) ; Shelley, Ibis, 1886, p. 309. 



Description. Adult male. Above chestnut red ; rump and 

 upper tail-coverts black, spotted and barred with white ; least 



