10 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 223 



rectrices that are elongated. In addition they are often rotated so 

 as to press their lower surfaces together forming a sort of tube in 

 Vidiia." In contrast, all the rectrices in Coliuspasser are elongated, 

 and the median ones less so than the lateral pairs. 



Inasmuch as rectricial elongation is something that has developed 

 independently in two of the main groups of ploceids, it would seem 

 that within each of these groups the short-tailed species are probably 

 nearer the basal stock from wliich they deviated than are their 

 long-tailed relatives. As far as the Viduinae are concerned, this 

 arrangement would mean that the combassous, Hypochera (herein 

 considered a subgenus), are more primitive than the species of Vidua 

 proper. This arrangement is further borne out by R. Neunzig's 

 (1931, p. 545) experimentally induced elongation of the median 

 rectrices of combassous. Chapin correctly stated that these species 

 are merely short-tailed viduas, and in his phylogenetic diagram of 

 the whole family he showed them (there called the genus Hypochera) 

 as the stock leading eventually to Steganura. Vidua is not shown 

 in his diagram, but is ostensibly between these two. Hence, appar- 

 ently Chapin also believed that the combassous are the most "primi- 

 tive"' of the existing Viduinae. 



Too little is loiown of the biology of the three species of combassous 

 even to suggest which is more primitive, and wliich is less so. 

 Apparently subgenus Hypochera spread northward through the 

 savannas, and in eastern and southeastern Africa eventually gave 

 rise to what has become the blue wddow bird. Vidua hyxjocherina. 

 Inasmuch as V. hypocherina has brown rather than blackish remiges, 

 its origin would seem to lie with either of the two brown-winged 

 combassous (V. funerea or V. amauropteryx) . On the whole, the 

 gloss of its plumage suggests V. amauropAeryx more than V. funerea, 

 and indeed, von Boetticher (1952, pp. 64-65) suggested that V. 

 hypocherina may be only a long-tailed race of V. amauropteryx. It 

 is doubtfully profitable, however, to attempt to particularize on 

 this point. 



At about the same time or possibly somewhat later, but apparently 

 independently of this offshoot, the pin-tailed widow bird, Vidua 

 macroura, evolved and became the most widely distributed member 

 of the group. That V. hypocherina has a much more restricted range 

 in northern portions of eastern Africa militates against its being 

 considered the direct link between the combassous and the pintail. 

 From this latter stock, in turn, subsequently arose the other two 

 species of the typical viduas — V. regia of the western portion of 

 southern Africa, and V.Jischeri of eastern Africa from central Tangan- 

 yika north to Somahland and Ethiopia. 



