164 FRINGILLIDJ3 POLIOSPIZA 



tipped with white ; greater coverts brown edged with pale reddish- 

 brown ; quills and tail-feathers dark brown edged with reddish- 

 brown ; crown, sides of face and neck dark grey; under surface 

 pale grey fading into dull white on the abdomen and under tail- 

 coverts ; axillaries and under wing-coverts brown. 



Iris hazel-brown ; bill horn-brown ; legs and feet brown. 



Length 6-00; wing 3-35; tail 2-45 ; tarsus O75 ; culmen (MO. 



Adult female. Bather less bright in colour and slightly smaller 

 in size. Wing 3'15 ; tail 2-35. 



Distribution. Northern and North-eastern Cape Colony ; the 

 Orange Free State, and Upper Natal to the north of Howick, 

 thence through the Transvaal and Bechuanaland to the Zambesi 

 and Cunene Eivers ; extending, on the east, into Nyasaland and 

 as far north as Zanzibar, on the west through Angola to Sene- 

 garnbia. In Cape Colony it is a very common species in the valley 

 of the Orange Eiver ; in Natal it is "numerous and generally 

 distributed in November from Ladysmith, as far down as Howick," 

 according to Majors Butler and Feilden and Captain Eeid. 



Habits. Although by no means an uncommon bird in many 

 districts, the presence of this Sparrow is frequently undetected 

 owing to its somewhat unassuming colours as well as its shy habits. 

 Unlike the common Cape Sparrow it avoids towns and villages and 

 is more often met with at a distance from human habitations, either 

 feeding on the ground or perched on trees or bushes. From the 

 Cape Sparrow it is readily distinguished, not only by its less 

 conspicuous plumage but by its sharper and shriller notes, as well 

 as by its more rapid flight. Like all its congeners it is very 

 omnivorous in its tastes, feeding indiscriminately upon small seeds 

 of grass and millet, on wheat, berries, fruit and various insects, 

 including grubs, caterpillars, and young locusts and grasshoppers. 

 According to Andersson this species frequents the water in the 

 morning and evening. It roosts, in small companies, in bushes 

 and thickly foliaged trees. Its nest I have never seen. 



Genus III. POLIOSPIZA. 



Type. 



Poliospiza, Bp. Conspectus, i, p. 519 (1850) P. gularis. 



Bill strong, conical and rather elongated, the maxilla somewhat 

 deeper than the mandible ; nostrils basal, rounded and hidden by 

 recurved frontal plumes. Wings rather short. Tail moderate and 



