Estrildidae

Nigrita emiliae
Sharpe, 1869: 384

Current name:
Nigrita canicapilla emiliae

Grey-headed Negrofinch
1 paratype

Paratype: ZMA 553, sex unknown, Fantee (Ghana), collected at an unknown date by E.T. Higgins, ex R.B. Sharpe (coll. nr. 95); wing 65, tail 46, bill to skull 12.7, tarsus 16.3.

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Additional information
The holotype is in the BMNH, an adult from Fantee, ex Sharpe coll.; wing 2.5' [= 63.5 mm], tail 1.7' [= 43 mm] (Sharpe 1869). ZMA 553 is almost certainly one of an original series of 8 birds recorded in Sharpe's Catalogue of African Birds (1871, p. 61), of which only 7 are listed in Sharpe (1890, pp. 316-317); thus, the 8th bird must have reached the ZMA between 1871 and 1890. The article with the description of emiliae discussed specimens from 2 collections, one of Mr Whitely from the Fantee country general, the other of Mr Higgins from Cape Coast Castle and immediate surroundings, within the Fantee country. As the ZMA type was collected by Higgins, its precise locality is thus Cape Coast (Central Province, Ghana). A specimen of another species from the Sharpe collection, Malimbus rubricollis bartletti, ZMA 37, Fantee, was received by the ZMA before Sharpe described bartletti and thus did not form part of the type-series; it is not listed by Sharpe in his original diagnosis (Sharpe 1890).

Measurements
As far as types in the ZMA are concerned, all measurements were taken by C.S. Roselaar, unless otherwise noted, using the methods as described in Svensson (1992) and comparable with the data published in the Handbook of Western Palearctic Birds. All are in mm, and are given to the nearest mm when taken with a ruler and to one-tenth of a mm when measured with calipers.

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