FRINGILLID^E ALARIO 179 



Iris brown ; bill brownish ; legs and feet flesh-coloured. 



Length 4-65 ; wing 2-75 ; tail 1-80 ; tarsus O52 ; culmen 0-40. 



Adult female. A little smaller than the male and with less 

 black on the throat. 



Distribution. Tolerably common on the Orange Kiver according 

 to Dr. Bradshaw, thence to the Zambesi Kiver, ranging as far north 

 as Masai Land in East Africa. On the west coast from Damara 

 Land to the Congo River. 



Genus V. ALARIO. 



Type. 



Alario, Bp. Conspect. i, p. 519 (1850) A. alario. 



Bill rather short and stout, not half the length of head, both 

 culmen and gonys slightly curved, and both mandibles about 

 equally deep. Wings short, falling short of the end of tail by more 

 than the length of the tarsus. Plumage of back, upper wing and 

 tail-coverts and tail, chestnut-red in the male, browner and duller 

 in the female. 



This genus contains a single species the range of which is 

 confined to South Africa. 



Alario alario. 



99. Alario alario. Mountain Canary. 



Fringilla alario, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p, 319 (1766). 



Alario alario, Bp. Consp. i, p. 519 (1850) ; Sharpe, ed. Layard's B. S. 

 Afr. p. 477 (1884) ; id. Cat. B. M. xii, p. 346 (1887) ; Butler, Foreign 

 Finches, p. 41, pi. $ and $ (1894) ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 21 (1896). 



Amadina alario, Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 200 (1867). 



Alario aurantia, Gurney, in -Andersson's B. Damara Land, p. 175 

 (1872). 



" Berg-Canarie " and " Namaqua Canarie " of the Dutch. 



Description. Adult male. Above, back and rump, also the 

 wing-coverts, chestnut-red; rest of wing black, the secondaries 

 edged with chestnut ; upper tail-coverts and tail-feathers chestnut ; 

 sides of neck white ; head throat and centre of breast black ; rest 



