284 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM, 



forms, are strikingly icterine in form and coloration, some resembling 

 the hang-nests or American Orioles (genus Icterus), while certain 

 genera recall the red-wings (genus Agelaius), having the same uni- 

 form black plumage, relieved l:)y a conspicuous crimson or scarlet 

 ''shoulder" patch similarly bordered liehind by a band of white or 

 bufl'. 



The Ploceidse are peculiar to the warmer parts of the Eastern Hem- 

 isphere, where they are confined to the African, Madagascaran, Indo- 

 Malayan, and Australian regions, being most developed in the first 

 named, where, alone, tlie forms of icterine appearance occur. Two 

 species have been introduced into the Antillean island of Porto Rico, 

 where they have become naturalized, thus necessitating a notice of 

 tlie family in the present work. 



Two "subfamilies" are recognized ])y the latest authority on the 

 group." These are said to differ in the relative development of the 

 "first" (i. e. tenth) primary as follows: 



KEY TO THE " «UBFAMILIE8 " OF PLOCEID.^.. 



a. "First" primary "large, generally olituse at the end, and extending beyond the 

 primary-coverts " Ploceinse. 



aa. "First" primary" very small and falcate, attenuated toward the end . . . never 

 reaching beyond the primary (diverts, and generally falling conspicuously short 

 of the latt er " Viduinae. 



The two species which have been introduced into Porto Rico belong- 

 to the "Yiduin^," and represent different genera which may be dis- 

 tinguished as follows : 



KEY TO THE AMERICAN (INTRODUCED) GENERA OF VIDUIN.'E. 



«. Tail slightly graduated, the difference in length between outermost and middle 



rectrices less than length of exposed culmen Spermestes (p. 2<S4) 



aa. Tail much graduated, the difference in length between outermost and middle 

 rectrices much greater than length of exposed culmen Estrilda (p. 286) 



Genus SPERMESTES Swainson. 



Spenneslefi Swainson, Birds West Africa, i, 1837, 201. (Type, *S'. CKcuUata 



Swainson.) 

 Lepidopycpa (not Lepidopyga Reichenbach, 1855) Retchenha("h, Singvogel, 



1 BJil , 48. (Type, Pynhnla nana Pucheran.) 



Bill stout, conical, with culmen broad and flattened basally, 

 where forming a broad and deep angle between the frontal antise; 

 exposed culmen shorter than middle toe without claw; width of 

 maxilla })etween nostrils much greater than its dej^th; gonys 

 straight, longer than mandibular rami; maxillary tomium more or 

 less strongly sinuated, without subterminal notch; mandible acute 

 at tip, its tomium strongly arched subbasally, strongly defiexed at 



a Dr. R. Bowdler Sharpe, in Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xiii, 1890, pp. 198-511. 



