Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 
259 
Phyllastrephus terrestris terrestris, Cape and Natal. 
„ „ intermedins, Delagoa Bay. 
„ ,, suahelicus, Lower Zambesi. 
„ „ rhodesiae, Upper Zambesi. 
Andropadus importunus noomei, snbsp. nov. 
Differs from A. importunus importunus in having a distinct wash of 
yellow on the abdomen. 
Type : (J, T.M. No. B 7804, Haenertsburg, north-eastern Transvaal, 
5th December, 1909, ex collection F. 0. Noome. Wing 88 mm., tail 85, 
tarsus 24, culmen 16. 
Also a series of skins from the same place and the neighbouring forests. 
Two specimens of Andropadus from the neighbourhood of Delagoa 
Bay have the underparts yellow, more or less clouded with olive-green 
on the chest. Peters obtained the type of his Andropadus oleaginus at 
Delagoa Bay, and these two specimens would therefore appear to be 
topotypical. A single specimen from Zimbiti, Beira, is of an altogether 
brighter yellow and appears to be referable to A. insularis. The 
southern birds should therefore be recognized as A. insularis oleaginus 
Ptrs. 
Parasitism amongst Finches. 
(Bead before the Transvaal Biological Society, 27th January, 1916.) 
From time to time in the Journal of the South African Ornithologists' Union 
I have referred to the parasitic habits of the Pin-tailed Widow Bird 
(Vidua serena ), and am positive from my numerous observations that this 
bird never builds its own nest, but deposits its eggs in the nest of some 
other bird, by whom they are incubated and the young birds reared. 
I have known it to leave its eggs in the nest of four species of Finches, 
these being the Common Waxbill ( Estrilda astrild), Dufresne’s Waxbill 
(Coccopygia dufresnei), Buddy Waxbill (Lagonosticta rubricata), and the 
Bed-collared Widow Bird (Coliuspasser ardens), the first three of which 
are smaller and the last rather larger than the Pin-tailed Widow Bird. 
It frequently deposits more than one egg in a nest, and I have known the 
whole clutch to be replaced by those of the parasite. Unlike the Cuckoos 
and Honey guides, this bird does not, when hatched, eject the young of 
the host, but instead, the parent parasite when depositing its eggs in a 
nest appears to destroy one of those of the host to make room for her own, 
and the young birds grow up together. There has been no direct 
corroborative evidence as to these observations ; but various quite different 
types of nest have been ascribed to this bird, and we may safely assume 
that these nests were either wrongly identified, or that the young birds 
which were seen in them were parasitic on the owners of the nests. 
Mr. Frank Bolus also recorded an incident which he observed in the Cape 
District : a hen of the Pin-tailed Widow Bird was observed seated on the 
ground apparently in difficulties, and on his approaching it, it flew away 
