740 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
Similar in general appearance to the last, this species may readily be dis- 
tinguished in the field by its whitish bill and more black in the plumage. Its 
habits are quite different in many ways, however, for it does not seem to be 
closely associated with the human population, but is found in the more open 
areas, clearings, and edges of rice-fields. In July and August we often saw 
them in pairs, and sometimes associated with the Thatch-birds in such feed- 
ing places. A female taken July 28 on the Du River, had the ovaries large, 
and may have been about to breed. Biittikofer mentions it from his chief 
collecting stations and it is undoubtedly common over the more open parts 
of the country. 
Amauresthes fringilloides (LaFresnaye) 
Plocus fringilloides LaFresnaye, Mag. de Zool., 1835, pl. 48: “India.” 
In size like the preceding, but with obviously longer bill; head and neck shining black, back 
and wings brown, often with fine light spots at the ends of the feathers; rump and tail black; 
belly and under tail-coverts white; a large black mark on each side of the breast and a pale reddish- 
brown one on each side of the belly; upper mandible black, lower pale bluish. Gambia to Ogowe 
and Zanzibar to Natal. 
Biittikofer reported having collected this species at various localities, as 
Schieffelinsville and Robertport, but from the context it is not clear that he 
did not at times confuse it in the field with the two preceding. Its longer bill, 
however, is distinctive, and a more recent record is afforded by a specimen 
from Mount Coffee taken by Currie (Oberholser, 1899, p.35). We did not meet 
with it. Kemp (1905) reports it in Sierra Leone associating with the two spe- 
cies preceding and building its nests in the mango and orange trees of the native 
compounds; he found it common at Rotifunk but at Bo saw it only once in 
three years’ stay. It is probable that it comes into some sort of competition 
with its associates mentioned, and is perhaps less successful than they. Biit- 
tikofer states that its nests were found in November at Robertport near human 
dwellings and that after the nesting season they collect in flocks, visiting the 
rice fields and at night sleep in reed growths, perched side by side. 
Nigrita canicapilla emiliae Sharpe. Gray and Black Weaver 
Nigrita emiliae Sharpe, Ibis, ser. 2, vol. 5, p. 384, pl. 11, 1869: Fanti. 
Length 4.75 inches; forehead, sides of head, entire under side, wings, and tail deep black; 
rest of the upper side blue-gray; iris red. Liberia to Togo. 
This beautiful little weaver is non-social in its habits and apparently un- 
common in Liberia. Buttikofer in all the course of his collecting mentions 
but two specimens from Schieffelinsville and one from Jarjee. We first met 
with it at Kaka Town, where Whitman and I secured a single bird that perched 
on the top of a small tree. A month later, at Gbanga, two were seen in low 
trees on the edge of a rice-field fluttering about and chasing each other as if 
fighting. The one secured proved to be.an adult male. On October 3, the men 
brought in three fledglings and showed us the nest, which they had dislodged 
from a fork of a tree on the edge of an open field, at a height of perhaps thirty 
