PARASITIC WEAVERBIRDS 93 



having the under wing-coverts and axillars white. Paler portions of 

 upper parts more whitish, less tawny ochraceous than in V. macroura, 

 and darker centers of feathers paler, dark olive brown, as compared 

 with Black in V. macroura. Under parts of body more whitish, less 

 tawny than in V. macroura. Also slightly smaller (wing length 63 

 to 67 mm., as compared with 66 to 78 mm. in V. macroura). Cannot 

 be distinguished from the adult female V. hypocherina with certainty. 



Adult female: Similar to male in nonbreeding plumage, averaging 

 slightly smaller, but not to such an extent that size may be used to 

 distinguish one from the other. Specimen material examined for 

 plumage characters does not permit me to discruninate between 

 breeding and nonbreeding females, or between fully adult birds and 

 younger postjuvenal ones. 



Juvenal (sexes alike) : Differs from corresponding stage of Vidua 

 macroura in having lores blackish, under wing-coverts and axillars 

 white, and under tail-coverts grayish tawny. General tone of entire 

 upper parts of head and body is slightly grayer, Buffy Brown (Olive 

 Brown in V. macroura), but this color difference is slight and may 

 even disappear in longer series. 



Pin-Tailed Widow Bird 



Vidua macroura (Pallas) S' 

 Plates 8, 9, 13-15 



Distribution 



The pintail is the best known, the commonest, and the most widely 

 distributed of all the parasitic weaver birds. It occurs on nearly all 

 types of land, except dense forest lands and true deserts, from the 

 grasslands south of the Sahara, from Senegal east to the middle and 

 lower part of Ethiopia, to Eritrea, south to Cape Province, on the 

 islands of Fernando Po and Sao Thome in the Gulf of Guinea, on 

 Zanzibar and Mafia Islands, and on Mayotte Island in the Comoro 

 group in the Indian Ocean. Its altitudinal range is from the seacoast 

 to as high as 7,500 feet. 



The pintail is found in open, tree-dotted, or bushy areas. It 

 avoids semiarid places, and sometimes is commonest in or close to 

 semimarshy spots. I have not, however, found it in true marshes. 



The recorded localities for the pintail are so numerous that there is 

 little point in attempting to list them all. Furthermore, this species 

 has no recognizable (or described) geographic races. It has been 

 recorded from every country or political area in its entire range, except 



•i Fringilla macroura Pallas, Adurahrat, in Vroeg, Catalogue . . . de quadrupedes et d'insectes .... 

 1764, p. 3, No. 144 (East Indies- Angola, ex Edwards and Brisson). 



