Whydahs. 
75 
and wonders if they clians^e after once assnmin.^' the bla:k 
phimage. Dr. Butler lias found it not unusual for the common 
species ( chalybcata ) to retain the summer dress for several yea "s 
in succession. In the (lambia too, one sees all-black Combasous 
(chalybcata ) still in full colour lowj; after tlie breedini;- season 
proper and when all the otner Whydahs and Weavers have been 
in undress for months. 
The only attempt at a record of the Ultramarine Comba- 
sou's breeding;" in confinement is the note by Air. Teschemaker 
on p. of the A.M. for 1910, that he had been informed that 
H .itHraiuari)ia had been bred in Germany. The more conmionly 
imported chalybcata may however have been meant, and this is 
the more likely as the note is in the form of a list of Whydahs 
reported to have been bred in captivity, in which the name H . 
chcJyhcata does not appear, as it should in view of Russ's record, 
unless it is the species meant by the name ultraniar'nia. 
❖ 
AIOURNING COMBASOU. 
flypochcra fiiiicrca. H.L. v. 437. 
Synonomy. 
I 
* ? the Black Linnet (Edwards. 1764) f B.M. Cat. 
Black Widow-finch. 
II 
I'riuf^illa fiDicrca. De Tarras^'. 1847. Tiaris finicrcn (Cray. 1849) 
Hyf^ochacra fuiicrca (Sharpe. Cat. xiii. 310. 1890). 
Hypochcra fiiiicrea (Sh. 1896) & B. Afr. iv. 
fJypochcra fuucrca pnrpurasccns (nec Reich). Neumann. 1900. 
HypucJiacra itltraniariiia . Ilartl. 1857. 
Ilypochacra nitciis. Ilartert. 1886. 
Rkkerknces. Sh. iv. 10. B.S.A. i. 153. 
i\.'\.\(;K. S.E. (.K: E. Africa. Eciuatorial Africa (Victoria 
Xyanza). W. Africa (Nit^'eria). 
This species Shelley descriljes as " similar to ultra- 
niar'nia. but differin.t;- in the quills and tail l)ein,L;- of a paler brown 
and in hax'ini^- more white on the undersurface of the win^-; no 
