74 
Why daks. 
l)luniag"e and mixed up with /'. scroia or other red-billed Wliy- 
duh, such as hypochcrina. 
Mr. Silver's birds may after all have been the latter, which 
for some reason or another could not grow long tails. 
The information on this point given by the various 
authorities may be summarised as follows : 
Butler says that all examp/les of the three imported types 
agree in having pale creamy-yellowish or ivory-whitish bills, and 
applies the epithet " horny white " to that of chalybcata. but of 
this species Shelley, quoting i lartlaub, writes " bill and legs 
reddish," that is of the male: of the female, he cjuotes Butler's 
description " horny white." That " reddish " must be a mistake 
everyone who has kept combasous must agree. 
Of H . iilti-tniiariua Shelley says that it agrees with chaly- 
bcata in all points except in the colour of the gloss, and quotes 
various differing descriptions of the colour of the bill; " whitish 
horn " (Jackson). " pale coral " (Lovat of a full-plumaged male 
from Abyssinia), " pinkish White (Pease, also from Aybs- 
sinia), and " pale ffesh colour "" (]<.agazzi, of a full-coloured 
male from Shoa). The last named says of two females shot at 
the same time, that the bills were red and the feet pale flesh 
colour (Sh. iv. 9). 
Stark describes the bill of fiiiicrca as " white " and that 
of aiiuniroptcryx as " whitish;"' Shelley quotes Barratt's des- 
cription as " dark pink " for the latter, and says that Layard 
described it as " red." though according to Stark all the South 
African forms have the bill white and the feet red. 
It will be seen that there is considerable divergence of 
opinion on this i)oint, particularly as regards the species we are 
now dealing with, but on the whole one is inclined to believe 
that the opinion that all Combasous have white bills is the cor- 
rect one, and that the red-billed examples must belong to the 
genus Vidua. However, one must not be too certain on this 
or any other point in aviculture. 
Of this species Mr. A. L. Butler of Khartoum writes that 
there he has seen them in full plumage from August to ?^larch, 
