Why da lis. 
39 
(ireen Combasou. 
Shining- Weaver-bird. 
*(]lossy Finch. Latham. (?). 
* Glossy Black Bengaly. old book name. 
Ultramarine Finch, occasionally for any Combasou. 
Atlas Finch, an occasional old dealers' name. 
II 
Fr'nigilla clialybcuta. MuUer 1776. Amadina chalybcata. (Gray. 
1870). Hypochacra chalybcata (Sharpe. 1871). Hypoc- 
hera chalybcata. (Reichenow. 1904) and Sh. iv. 6. 
Fringilla iiitcns. Gm. 1788. Luxigilla nitcns (Lesson. 1831). 
Amadina nitcns (Sw. 1837). Hypochcra nitcns (Bp. 1850) 
Hypochacra aenea. Hartl. 1854. and Cat. 309. 
References. Butler. F.F. 274. Plate, d ?. Russ. i. 
198, 199. PI. 7. Cassell. 402. PI. p. 385. (more like ultrama 
riiia). Butler i. 186. Gedney. ii. 71. Sw. i. 99. Sh. iv. 6. 
Range. West Africa (Senegambia). 
This is the common Combasou of " commerce." The 
black or rather dark blue of the male is glossed with green. In 
the Gambia, as no doubt throughout their range, they are very 
common, haunting the neighbourhood of the villages in com- 
pany with Firefinches and Senegal Sparrows. Their nests are 
usually found in holes in the grass roofs or the mud walls of the 
native huts, but they sometimes breed in trees, for Mr. van 
Someren in a recent Ibis (1916. p. 426) writes of a nest " in t 
" thick spray of the Cape lilac, about seven feet from the 
■' ground in which were three white eggs. 
As this note refers to British East Africa the range 3s 
given above for this species must be extended, for in the note 
the strong greenish sheen, the special characteristic of chaly- 
bcata is mentioned, and therefore the possibility that the writer 
is referring to ultramarina or some other species excluded. This 
eastward extension of the range of Senegambian birds is com- 
mon, for many of the birds found in the Gambia are absolutely 
identical with those from Abyssinia and other parts of East 
Africa, and throughout the southern Sudan, which links up the 
two regions, west and east. 
