PARASITIC WEAVERBIRDS 89 



Slate-Blue. Bill white. Feet coral or orange-red. Iris brown. 

 Wings 57-70 mm. 



Adult male in nonbreeding plumage: Like that of nominate 

 race. 



Female: Like that of nominate race. Wings 59-65 mm. 



Juvenal (sexes alike) : Like that of the nominate race. 



Native Names 



Very few native names for the black-winged combassou have been re- 

 ported in the literature. I note that the JoloflF name "kumbassooban" 

 may have been the origin of the term combassou, which was first 

 applied to these birds by the aviculturists and since then adopted 

 more widely by ornithologists. 



Native Name Tribe Locality 



Kumbassooban JoloflF Gambia 



Nyanna-Fintong Mandigo Gambia 



Sannafintong Mandigo Gambia 



Tioukhoum Arabicized French West Africa 



Tchorelli Ukamba Kenya Colony 



Long-Tailed Widow Birds: Subgenus Vidua 



The foiu- species of long-tailed widow birds, so called because the 

 breeding adult males have the two median pairs of rectrices greatly 

 elongated, constitute the typical section or subgenus of the genus 

 Vidua. They are remarkably dissimilar in the male nuptial dress, 

 so dissimilar that at one time they were placed in three genera, but 

 the differences are not of more than specific value. In their other 

 plumages and in their general life histories, the species are very sim- 

 ilar. For the benefit of field students and of museum workers, it is 

 useful to have the differences between the females and the nonbreeding 

 males of the included species outlined here. For further details, 

 reference should be made to the plumage descriptions given near the 

 end of the account of each species. In general, it is not readily pos- 

 sible to distinguish between males in nonbreeding dress and adult 

 females of the same species. 



The top of the head is bufFy white with a blackish-brown stripe on 

 either side in all but the straw-tailed widow bird. Vidua fischeri, 

 whose crown is brown with dusky marks. Concerning the other three, 

 the superciliary streak is white in the shaft-tailed widow bird, V. 

 regia, and buffy varying from rufous buff to pale buff in the other two. 

 The latter two may be told apart by the inner margins of the inner 

 webs of the primaries, which are very narrowly edged with white in 

 the pin-taUed widow bird, V. macroura, and more broadly edged with 

 white in the blue widow bird, V. hypocherina. The latter also has a 

 dusky mark in the loreal area, uhich is not present in the pintail. 



