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THE PIN-TAILED WHYDAH.
ViWi/a principalis, LiNN.
'J^^'HIS extremely excitable and active little bird is frequently imported, and ma_v
almost always be obtained either in or out of colour. According to Dr.
Sliarpe its habitat is " From Senegambia along the whole western coast to Damara
and Great Namaqiia Land, and extending along the Congo to the White Nile
district. Throvighoiit North-eastern Africa as high as 17° N. lat. ; also throughout
the whole of the Zanzibar and Masai countries as far inland as Lake Tanganyika,
and sonth to Mosambique and the Zambesi ; thence south into the eastern Cape
Colony as far west as the Knysna district. It probably occurs in all the intervening
countries of Africa." Mr. Abrahams however belie^-es that there are two
distinct races and that the Southern form not only differs from the Western in
size and colouring, but also in its capacity for replacing its tail when lost and in
the fact that it retains its breeding plumage longer.
My male bird was a Southern example ; but, as it never lost its tail during
the breeding-season, - I was unable to confirm this statement of Mr. Abrahams' :
nevertheless it appears that the two cannot be separated as species, as we shall
presently see. I do not know whence my females were received.
The adult male in colour has the top of the head, sometimes the chin, the
back, a short band extending forwards on each side on to the chest, and the tail
greenish-black ; wings black with the lesser and median coverts white fonning a
broad band ; greater coverts edged with buff; the throat, a narrow collar running
over the back of the neck, the breast, abdomen and under tail-coverts white.
Length, exclusive of longer tail-feathers, 4I inches; with tail-feathers \-arying
in length according to age, beak coral-red, legs reddish-brown; iris dark brown.
The female above is mottled brown and black, the top of the head is bro-ivn
with darker dots, traversed by six blackish longitudinal stripes, region of the
eye brown; under parts whitish, stained with tawny on the flanks, with a few
blackish lines; quills above blackish with greyish edges, the inner secondaries
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