Ploceus melanocephalus usumburae Neumann

Ploceus melanocephalus usumburae Neumann, 1920: 82 (Usumbura) .

Now Ploceus melanocephalus duboisi Hartlaub, 1886 . See Hartert, 1928: 194; Chapin, 1954b: 340–342; Moreau and Greenway, 1962: 48; Dickinson, 2003: 722; Fry and Keith, 2004: 174–175; and Craig, 2010: 163–164.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 723422, female [male plumage], collected at Usumbura, 03.23S, 29.21E (Chapin, 1954a), Burundi, on 17 April 1908, by Rudolf Grauer (no. 2394). From the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In the original description, Neumann described only the male, gave only one measurement, and said that the type, with the above data, was in the Rothschild Collection. The Rothschild label is marked ‘‘ Ploceus melanocephalus usumburae Neum. Type,’’ in Neumann’s hand. It also bears a Rothschild type label. Two additional specimens of P. melanocephalus from Usumbura, also sexed as females but in male plumage, were considered to be specimens of duboisi by Neumann, who said that they occurred at Usumbura with his specimen of usumburae but lacked its trace of brown on the chest.