Whydahs. 
73 
ULTRAMARINE COMBASOU. 
ilxpochcra nltraiiiariiia. ILL. v. 437. 
Synonomy. 
I 
Outre-nier. Buff on. 
Ultramarine Finch. Latham. 
II 
Fringilla ultramarina. Gm. 1788. Hypochacra ultramarina 
(Cab. 1850) & Cat. 309. Hypochcra nitcns ultrama- 
rina. (HartL 1883). 
References. CasseU. Plate, p. 385 (more like this 
species than chalybcata). Butler, i. 186. Sh. iv. 8. 
Range. N. E. Africa (Nubia to Upper White Nilej. West 
Africa (Gold Coast to Nigeria). 
This is another northern dark-winged Combasou, which 
differs " from H. chalybcata only in tlie gloss on the plumage 
" of the males being violet shaded blue, with no green " (Sh). 
In the A.M. for 1917. p. 90. Mr. Allen Silver describes the 
beak as coral red. He writes that he and others had previously 
imagined they had possessed Ultramarine Combasous, " but 
" they were only very fine common Combasous exhibiting" 
" bluish rather than greenish sheen on their black plumage. 
" H. ultramarina stands well away and quite distinct from the 
" commoner species in having a bright coral red bill and feet, 
" whereas the bill of the latter, as everyone knows, is silvery 
" white. My bird assumed absolutely rich black plumage 
" with the brightest of Prussian blue reflections." The bird 
he writes of was one of those imported in 1914 as " Long-tailed 
Combasous " (J'idna hypochcrina ) . ]\]r. Silver says that none 
of those which lived grew long tails and thinks that all of them 
were Ultramarine Combasous and that red bills are the leading 
characteristics of this species of Hypochcra. I think there must 
be some error here, for no recent description gives the bill of 
this or any other Combasou as red, though it was so described 
by some of the earlier writers. As Dr. Butler remarks, this 
error can have easily been made when the birds were in winter 
