308 CAPT. G. E. SHELLEY ON BIRDS [Mar. 7, 



23. Penthetria ardens. 



Penthetria ardens (Bodd.) ; Finsch & Hartl. Vog. Ostafr. p. 423. 



Mamboio and Ugogo. 



New to East Africa. From the above-mentioned localities it ranges 

 southward into Natal and Caffraria, and westward to the Loaugo 

 coast. 



24. Amblyospiza unicolor. 



Aviblyospizaunicolor, Fischer &E,eichenow; Shelley, P.Z. S. 1881, 

 p. 589. 

 Mamboio. 

 This is the most southern limit we can yet accord to this species. 



25. Fringillaria orientalis, sp. n. 



Very similar to F. major. Cab., but smaller, with the bill and legs 

 slightly longer and stouter ; the eyebrow and white central band on 

 the crown broader and more distinctly marked. Total length 5*7 

 inches, culmen 0'55, wing 3-2, tail 3"1, tarsus 0"8. 



Mamboio. 



In my opinion this is only one of three races of a single species : 

 but I have here described it as a new species, as many ornithologists 

 may prefer to consider it such. By the term race I intend to 

 indicate that the form is so nearly allied to one or more others that, 

 in my opinion, further research is sure to discover intermediate forms 

 which may be placed as well with one as with the other. 



The three races are : — 



1. F. cabanisi, Reichenow, J. f. O. W^, p. 233, pi. 2. figs. 2, 3. 

 Ilab. Cameroons. 



This race is only known to me by the description and plate I. c. 



2. F. orientalis. Hab. Mamboio. 



3. F. major, Cab. J. f. O. 1880, p. 349. pi. 2. fig. 2. Hah. 

 Angola. 



As regards F. cabanisi, Bocage, Orn. Angola, p. 371, I have a 

 specimen in my own collection of this form from Caconda. It differs 

 from the plate given by Dr. Cabanis (/. c.) in the central stripe on 

 the crown being white, not grey, and in the feathers of the mantle 

 being more striped and less scale-like, their dark centres generally 

 extending quite to the tips of the feathers. 



26. Mirafra torrida, sp. n. (Plate XVII.) 



Upper parts rufous-brown, with dark central stripes to the fea- 

 thers of the crown, nape, and greater portion of the back; rump and 

 upper tail-coverts with obsolete shaft-stripes ; some of the feathers 

 of the mantle very partially edged with buff. Wings rufous, the 

 coverts and secondaries edged with buff; median and greater coverts 

 partially barred with black ; secondaries somewhat similarly barred, 

 and with a waved black line encircling each feather near the edge ; 

 primaries browner, without black markings, and broadly edged exter- 

 nally and internally with rufous. Tail, two centre feathers rufous; outer 

 tail-feat hers, with the exception of an inner edging, and the outer 



