



154 PLOCEID^J HYPOCHERA 



and almost exclusively an inhabitant of the native villages, together 

 with Lagonosticta minima. It is a lively little bird, which enters the 

 houses in search of food and water. The males change to the 

 breeding plumage at the commencement of the rainy season. These 

 birds prefer the clay huts of the Nubians to the straw houses of the 

 Soudanese, and usually a few pairs live about the same farm-building. 

 The song is not remarkable, the call-note a very sharp, and rather 

 harsh chirp. Brehm states that the nest is built indifferently upon 

 trees, under the rafters of roofs, in the gable ends, and in holes in 

 walls. It resembles that of a House-sparrow in being a large but 

 orderly heap of straws, rags, cotton, feathers, and so on ; the 

 depression being lined with hairs and threads. Occasionally this 

 bird uses the deserted nest of a swallow and sometimes a hole in a 

 tree. The eggs are white and from three to five in number." All 

 the Hypochera feed on small seeds which they find on the ground, 

 frequently by scratching like a fowl. Occasionally they take small 

 insects. 



81. Hypochera funerea nigerrima. Purple Widow Finch. 



Hypochaera nigerrima, Sliarpe, P.Z.S. 1871, p. 133; id. Cat. B. M. xiii, 

 p. 311 (1890) ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 23 (1896). 



Description. (From Cat. B. M.). "Adult (type of species). 

 Similar to H. funerea, and with the same brown wings, but with 

 the plumage deep purplish black above and below. Total length 

 4-4 inches ; culmen 0-4 ; wing 2-6 ; tail 1'4 ; tarsus 0.55." 



Distribution. " From Angola to the Upper Congo Eegion and 

 south to the Zambesi " (Kirk) ; Zomba, Nyasaland (Whyte). 



82. Hypochera funerea amauroptera. 



Steel- coloured Widow Finch. 



Amadina nitens, Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 20 (1867). 



Hypochaera ultramarina (nee Gm.), Gurney in Andersson's B. Damara 



Land, p. 175 (1872) ; Sharpe, ed. Layards B. S. Afr. p. 457 



(1884) pt. 



Hypochaera amauropteryx, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii, p. 309 (1890). 

 Hypochera amauroptera, Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 23 (1896). 



Description. Adult male in summer. Entire head and body 

 dark greenish-black glossed with steel-blue ; wings brown. 

 Iris brown ; bill whitish ; feet red. 



