SEBINUS 175 



tail-coverts ; lesser wing-coverts brown ; middle and greater coverts 

 darker brown edged with pale brown ; quills dusky edged with 

 whitish ; tail-feathers dark brown tinged with yellow and edged 

 with grey ; crown like the back ; a slight eyebrow and fore cheeks 

 white; lores dusky; sides of neck, ear-coverts and hind cheeks 

 ash-brown ; below, pale ash-brown ; the throat, abdomen, and under 

 tail-coverts white ; axillaries and under wing-coverts pale ash- 

 brown, the lower tipped with white. 



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



Length 6*30 ; wing 3'05 ; tail 2-35 ; tarsus 0-85 ; culmen 0-55. 



Adult female. Bather smaller and duller in colour. 



Young. Kesembling the adult. 



Serinus albigularis. 



Distribution. Confined to Cape Colony, where it is very gener- 

 ally distributed, especially in the western half of the colony. Very 

 common on the coast at Saldanha Bay and on the Berg Eiver. 

 Barer to the east of Port Elizabeth. 



Habits. This large but soberly coloured Seed-eater is very 

 common to the north of Cape Town, especially towards Saldanha 

 Bay, a locality in which Layard noticed its abundance in his time. 

 Here it inhabits the bush-overgrown sand-dunes close to the beach, 

 and feeds on the seeds of several of the more common weeds. In 

 spring the cocks sing loudly and melodiously from the tops of the 

 bushes, their song being, to my ear, superior to that of the Cape 

 Canary. About the beginning of September they proceed to build 

 their nests, open cup-shaped structures, in the bushes, frequently 

 in a " milk-bush," about four feet above the ground. These 

 are rather loosely constructed of thin, pliable twigs and dry grass- 

 stems, and are invariably lined with the white downy blossoms 

 of a common weed. Towards the end of the month the females 



