12 



Young Bird, Somali. Dark brownisli black, willi slaty grey tinge on crown, neck and 

 breast ; shewing brownish feathers on the back of various stages of growth ; base of 

 feathers greyish white ; heart-shaped submarginal blotches on feathers of breast : bill 

 yellowish brown at base, tip blackish ; feet dark brown. PI. III. fig. 2. 



The two large black weavers which I now wish to distinguish have, 

 I may say, been intermixed to such an extent, that they are almost beyond 

 separation, and in attempting to divide them I find it advisable to follow 

 up the original diagnosis of the two birds from the earlier authors, but 

 this is rather perplexing, for neither Brisson or Linnaeus give a locality 

 beyond Africa for the species under consideration. 



In the diagnosis given by Brisson in 1760, the bill and feet of his 

 Pyrrhula Africana nigra are described as follows — " Rostrum cinereo-album. 

 Pedes, unrjucsqiie cincrcij' which is unmistakably meant for Tc.vtor albirosfris. 

 Six years after the above was published Linnteus describes in his 'Systema 

 Naturas' 1766, another species which he calls Loxia panicioora, described 

 thus, " Loxia nigra, alula alba, rostro incarnato,'" which cannot be any other 

 bird than [Te.vtor erijthrorhynchus, Smith), at the same time he quotes 

 Brisson's work for the species, and in doing so led all subsequent Orni- 

 thologists to follow up the entanglement he commenced, for I find all 

 intervening authors up to within a few years of the present day, have used 

 the same synonymy for the two birds ; under these circumstances I have 

 placed all the references to the white or grey-billed bird from N. E., E., 

 and West Africa, under Textor albirostris ; and those of the red-billed bird 

 of South, and part of West Central Africa, under Textor panicivwa; but in 

 doing this another difficulty arises as to which species Dr. Cabanis's Textor 

 intermedius belongs, then again there is Textor scioanus, Salvad., both 

 described as having red bills and inhabiting the same country, in juxta- 

 position with T. albirostris. 



I do here most candidly admit that the two latter birds, are as much 

 entitled to be placed with one as the other, and on careful examination of 

 a series of seventeen specimens now before me, I have no hesitation in 

 saying that they are hybrids between the South and North-east African 



