570 PASSERIFORMES CHAP. 
leaden or horn-coloured. Roughly speaking, Vanagra contains sixty 
species, Huphonia, Chlorospingus, and Buarremon each over thirty. 
The flight of these bold, lively, and restless birds—often met 
with in small parties—is Finch-like and not uncommonly brief; 
the song, frequently heard in chorus, is mellow and _ pleasing, 
accompanied by chattering, whistling, and chirping notes ; the diet 
consists of insects and fruits, even the latter being occasionally 
snatched upon the wing; while worms, larvae, and molluscs are 
eaten, and some species scratch for food among fallen leaves. 
The nests are usually shallow fabrics of grass, roots, fibres, moss, 
and lichens, lined 
with hair or down; 
twigs, broad leaves, or 
fern-stems being com- 
monly added below: 
they are sometimes 
placed in forks of trees 
or bushes, if not at 
the ends of branches ; 
sometimes in masses 
of creepers, or even 
upon the ground ; that 
of Pyrruphonia 1s 
domed, while that of 
Rhamphocoelus — bra- 
silius is built in tall 
erass In marshy places. 
Fic. 140.—Brazilian Tanager. | Rhamphocoelus De Hero acount eges 
brasilius. Xxs%. 
are white, bluish, 
greenish, grey, salmon-coloured, or rich brown, being at times 
uniform, but generally blotched, spotted, freckled, lined, or scrolled 
with brown, lilac, red, purple, or black. Procnias 1s said to lay 
three or four white eggs in holes in trees or in the soil, upon a 
bed of roots and plant-stems.* 
Fam. XXXIV. Ploceidae——The Weaver-birds, closely allied 
to the above, and hardly to be distinguished from the Fringillidae 
except by the tenth primary being distinctly developed, may be 
divided 2 into the Sub-families Viduinae, occurring in the Ethi- 
opian, Indian, and Australian Regions, in which this quill is small 
1 Euler, J. f. O. 1867, p. 411. 2 Cf. Shelley, Zvis, 1886, pp. 301-359 ; 1887, pp. 1-47. 
