588 Mr. G. L. Bates on ike 



thickened aud yellowish-white, with two eulargements or 

 gape-wattles in it on each side. The inside of the mouth 

 was pale yellow, and there were three large black spots on 

 the palate, with another small one on each side near the 

 gape, as ligurcd (text-fig. IG, A, p. 590). 



The statement made by me in an early letter to 

 Di*. Sharpe, and published in 'The Ibis ' (1902, p. 90), that 

 I had seen the Edumvin building in high trees in the 

 forest, was a mistake, due to my confounding this bird with 

 a MaUmhus. The Edumvin is a humble bii"d, and spends 

 its life in bushes near the ground. Two nests were found 

 last year in such situations, besides one or two others not 

 recorded. 



These nests were loose globular piles of ferns with a 

 central })ortion of grass-tops, in shaj)e like those of Estrilda, 

 with an opening at the side; some soft white pappus was 

 placed inside for lining, and in one case some feathers 

 that Avere not the bird^s own. Each nest contained three 

 white eggs devoid of gloss; those of one clutch measure 

 19 or 19*5x 14 mm., while those of the other all measure 

 19 5 X 13'5 mm. 



Pyrenestes ostrinus. [Edumvin,] 



Sharpe, Ibis, 1908, p. 317. 



An adult female (No. 3606) is a somewhat smaller bird 

 than any of the others, which include males and females, 

 and has a much smaller bill, the length of the culmen being 

 12 mm,, and the width of the bill at the base the same, 

 while in the other adult female the length was 15 and the 

 width 16 mm. These birds weie all from the same locality. 



The gape-wattles and the black spots on the pahite of an 

 innnature specimen (No. 3135) were much like those of 

 Spermospiza (juttata {cf. text-fig. 16, A, p. 590). 



Tills Edumvin is found in swampy places overgrown with 

 the sedges which the people used formerly to cut and burn 

 to obtain salt from the ashes, and it feeds on their hard 

 seeds. A sitting female (No. 4347) was brought in with 

 a nest, which was said to have been found in such a place. 

 The nest was a large globular mass of dry broad strips of 



