436 Receiitly inihllshed Ornithological Works. [Ibis, 



XXIII. — Notices of recent Oi-nithological Publications. 



Chapin on the Ploceida. 



[The Classification of the Weaver-birds. By James P, Cliapin. 

 Bull. Amer. Mus. N. II., New York, x.vxvii. 1917, pp. 243-281), 

 pis. vi.-x.] 



The classification of the Weaver-birds has long been in a 

 somewhat unsatisfactory condition ; it has been based on 

 the condition of the outer or teutli primary. In some 

 genera this feather is large and well developed, and exceeds 

 half the length of the next or ninth ; in other cases it is 

 quite minute and is shorter than the primary-coverts. This 

 distinction is by no means a sharply-defined one and in 

 some genera hardly holds good, some of the species falling 

 into one group and some into another ; moreover, it 

 separates such forms as the Whydahs [Coliuspasser^ and 

 the Biihop-birds (Pi/rumelana) from the typical Weavers 

 (Ploceus), to which they have many affinities, and allies 

 them to the Waxbills and other small forms such as 

 Estrilda. 



Mr. Chapin proposes, first of all, to remove entirely from 

 the family the genera Textor and Dinemellia, which can be 

 distinguished by important modifications of the skull in the 

 matter of the arrangement of the orbital foramina and in 

 the form of the spina interna of the sternum. These and 

 other peculiarities entitle Textor and Dinemellia to rank, in 

 the opinion of Mr. Chapin, as a distinct family — Textoridse. 



He proposes to divide the Ploceidae into two subfamilies, 

 for which he retains the old names Estrildinte and Ploceinie. 

 The first of these — the Weaver-Finches — are distinguished 

 by the fact that the nestlings almost always have dark pig- 

 mented spots or lines in their mouths and often wattles at 

 the gape ; the nests are not pensile or really woven ; the cj-gs 

 are white ; and, as a general rule, the outer (tenth) primary 

 is shorter than the primary-coverts. All the smaller forms 

 of Waxbills, Negro-Finches, Silverbills, Mannikins, etc., etc., 

 come in this subfamily. 



