128 PLOCEID^ PYKOMELANA 



often of great extent, the nests, which are domed and woven out of 

 grass, being attached to the stems of three or four reeds, about four 

 or five feet above the mud or water. The eggs, four or five in 

 number, are somewhat pyriform in shape and of a uniform pale 

 greenish-blue colour. They average O82 x 0-60. The female sits 

 for fourteen days. The young are at first fed on small caterpillars 

 and other insects, including the larvae of mosquitoes. 



68. Pyromelana taha. Taha Bishop Bird. 



Euplectes taha, Smith, Eeport, Exp. Cent. Afr. p. 50 (1836) ; id. Ill 

 Zool. 8. Afr., Birds, pi. 7 ; Gurney in Andersson's B. Damara 

 Land, p. 171 (1872). 



Ploceus taha, Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 184 (1867). 



Pyromelana taha, Sharpe, ed. Layard's B. S. Afr. p. 465 (1884) ; id. 

 Cat. B. M. xiii, p. 242 (1890) ; Shelley B. Afr. i, p. 25 (1896). 



Description. Adult male in summer. Crown golden yellow ; 

 nape, back, rump, and upper and under tail- coverts bright yellow, 

 the upper back streaked with brown ; scapulars, wing-coverts and 

 secondaries dark brown edged with yellow ; primaries brown edged 

 with white ; tail brown ; lores, sides of face and neck, a collar 

 round hind-neck and under surface of body jet-black ; under wing- 

 coverts buff. 



Iris brown ; bill black ; feet pale brown. 



Length 4-25 ; wing 2-40 ; tail 1-60 ; tarsus 0-70 ; culmen 50. 



Adult male in winter. Resembles the female. 



Adult female. Above brown streaked with black ; wings and 

 tail blackish, the feathers edged with brown; eyebrow buff; ear- 

 coverts brown, black above ; below sandy brown streaked with 

 black on the breast, sides and flanks ; throat and abdomen nearly 

 white; edge of wing yellow; axillaries and under wing- coverts 

 dull white. 



Iris light brown ; bill pale brown ; feet darker brown. 



Length 4-10; wing 2-40; tail 1-30; tarsus 0-70; culmen 0-50. 



Distribution. From Durban and Pinetown in Natal northward, 

 but somewhat locally distributed. In the Free State it is rather 

 common on the Modder river ; in the Transvaal it is found very 

 numerously in marshy districts from Potchefstroom to the Limpopo. 

 It extends into Matabili and Mashona Lands ; thence to Lake 

 Ngami and Ondongo. A small race occurs in Masai Land which 

 Dr. Sharpe does not consider specifically distinct. 



