94. 



Genus Ploceus, Cuv. fVeaver Bird. 



106. Ploceus Philippensis, Cuv, Philippine Grosbeak, Lath. 



The IVeaver Bird is very common in Dukhun, and there are few 

 wells overhung by a tree vvhere their nests are not seen pen^ 

 dent. They live in small communitieSj and are very noisy in 

 their labours. They associate so readily with the common 

 Sparroiv that at the season of the falling of the grass seeds 

 Colonei Sykes, in firing into a flock of Sparroivs on the grass 

 plats in his ovvn grounds, killed as many IVeaver Birds as 

 Sparrouis- Fruit of the Ficus Indicu and grass seeds have been 

 found in the stomach. Irides intense brovvn. 



107. Ploceus Jlavico Uis. Fringilla JiavicolUs, Frankl. 



This bird has so neariy the bill, tongue, irides, size and aspect of 

 Ploc. Philippensis, that Colonei Sykes has considered it a 

 Ploceus. Grass seeds and a fevv grains of rice found in ihe 

 stomach. Very rare in Dukhun. 



Genus Fringilla, Auct, Finch. 



108. Fringilla crucigera, Temm., PI. Col. 269. fig. 1. Duree Finch, 



Lath. 

 This minute bird has the strange habit of squatting on the high 

 roads and almost allovving itself to be ridden over ere it rises. 

 Smaller than a Sparroiv. Irides red brovvn. Coleopterous 

 insects, maggots, and seeds of Panicum spicatum found in the 

 stomachs of many specimens. This bird has the straight hind 

 claw of a Lark, and shculd therefore neither be classed as a 

 Fringilla, agreeably to M. Temminck, nor as a Passer, agree- 

 ably to Brisson. Its habits also separate it from both these 

 genera. M. Temminck in his Plate has placed it on a twig, 

 but it never perches. 



Genus Lonchura. 

 Rostrum forte, breve, latum, altitudine ad basin longitudinera 

 seąuans ; mandibidis integris, superiori in frontem angulariter exten- 

 dente, cumque eo circuli arcum formante. 



Al<s mediocres, subacuminatae; remigibus. Ima brevissima sub- 

 spuria, 2da .'^tia 4taque fere aeąualibus longissimis. 



Cauda gradata, lanceolata; rectricibus mediis cseteras paullo lon- 

 gitudine superantibus. 



Pedes mediocres, subgraciles. 



The peculiar spear-head form of the tai), and the ridge of the 

 upper mandible and the forehead, forming a segment of the šame 

 circle, together with the habits of the follovving species, afFord suf- 

 fficient characteristics to justify their separation from the genus 

 Fringilla of M. Temminck. The Gros-bec longicone of the PI. Col. 96. 

 {Emb. guadricolor, Lath.) belongs to the šame group. 

 109. Lonchura nisoria. Fringilla nisoria, Temm, Gros-bec epervin, 



PI. Col. 500. Fig. 2. 

 ,. Found only in the Ghauts. Grass seeds in the stomach. Length 

 5t*o inches: tall liV to 2 inches. Sexes alike. 



I 



