VII PLOCEIDAE Saw 
and falcate, and Ploceinae, peculiar to Africa and its islands— 
with the exception of the genera Ploceus and Ploceélla of the Indian 
Region—in which it is larger. The former group includes the 
long-tailed Widow-birds, the red-beaked Wax-bills, and so forth ; 
the latter the more typical Weaver-birds; Africa furnishing by far 
the greatest number of species. The bill is normally strong and 
conical, but is unusually long and slender in Hmblema, and particu- 
larly stout with ridged culmen in Amblyospiza ; the maxilla may 
be toothed, as in Pyvrenestes, or 
festooned, as in Spermestes. The 
metatarsus is moderate, and the 
hind claw sometimes lengthened, 
as in ILcteropsis. The rounded 
or pointed wings have very 
long secondaries, and the tail 
shews a shght fork; while in 
the breeding season the four 
median rectrices in the males of 
Vidua and several alhed genera 
are extraordinarily elongated, be- 
ing then either broad or tapering, 
and reduced to threads at the 
extremity, or bare-shafted with 
“racquet” tips’ Crests are un- _ ; 
ees Fic. 141.—Weaver-bird. Pyromelaena 
common, hair-like plumes on the flammiceps, xq 
nape more frequent, while Py7ro- 
melaena and Urobrachya have a neck-frill in summer. 
The coloration of these rather small birds is most striking, 
though the females are usually much duller than the males, 
which have in some cases a sober winter garb. Vidua princi- 
palis is black and white ; Penthetria ardens is black with scarlet 
gorget ; Philetaerus socius is brown, butt, black, and white ; Zonae- 
ginthus bellus is brown above, with transverse black lines and 
12 
crimson rump, but silver grey below with black bars; Hypochera 
ultramarina is entirely purplsh-blue ; Sporaeginthus amandava, 
the Amadavat, is chiefly crimson with white dots; Junia 
oryzivora, the “ Java Sparrow,” is blue-grey and black with white 
cheeks. JL punctulata, the Cowry- or Nutmeg-bird, is brown, 
For a full account of the tail-feathers of these remarkable birds, see Strickland, 
Contrib. Ornith. 1850, pp. 88, 149; A. Newton, Dict. Lirds, 1896, p. 1030. 
VOL. IX Ze 
