GROSBEAK. 235 



29— CAFFRARIAN GROSBEAK. 



Loxia Caffra, Ind. Om. i. 393. Gm. Lin. i. 858. Act. Stock. 1784. 289. Share's 



Zool.xx. 2S6. 

 Fringilla Caffra longicauda, Spaloivsk. Vog. iii. t. 32.— fem. 

 Emberiza longicauda, Ind. Om. i. 406. Gm. Lin. i. 884. 

 Loxia longicauda, Mill. III. t. iii. A. 

 Langstaart, Thunb. Tr. ii. p. 04. (Engl, ed.) 

 La Veuve a Epaulettes, Buf. iv. 164. PI. enl. 635. 

 Cape Sparrow, Kolb. Cap. ii. 159. t. 7. f. 7. 

 Yellow-shouldered Oriole, Brown. III. pi. 11. 



Orange-shouldered Bunting, Gen. Syn. iii. 184. Shaw's Zool. ix. 422. 

 Caffrarian Grosbeak, Gen. Syn. Sup. ii. p. 194. 



SIZE of a Bulfinch. Bill cinereous brown ; plumage in general 

 black ; shoulders crimson ; wing coverts white ; quills brown, mar- 

 gined with white ; tail longer than the body, and sometimes more 

 than twice the length of it ; legs grey. 



This is no doubt the same bird, described as Orange-shouldered 

 Bunting, which measures to the rump only five inches ; but the tail 

 is often fifteen at least, as the two middle feathers are of that length ; 

 the next adjoining fourteen ; the third eleven ; and all the outer ones 

 much shorter ; colour of the body and wings as before described ; 

 some of the quills white at the base, the secondaries as long the 

 primaries. 



This species inhabits the Cape of Good Hope ; at certain seasons 

 the male is grey, but the female is always of that colour ; said to 

 build in marshy places, low fields, and bogs, about Sea-cow river. 

 According to Mr. Barrow,* the nest is curious, composed of grass, 

 platted into a round ball, fastened between two reeds ; the entrance 

 through a tube, the orifice next the water. It appears to be poly- 

 gamous ; for although thirty or forty nests are often in one clump of 

 reeds, never more than two males are seen among them. — M. Thun- 

 bergf observes, that in winter the cock is grey, as the hen is, all the 



* Trav. in Africa, p. 244. f Trav. ii. p. 64. 



Hh 2 



