PLOCEUS SAKALAVA 487 



Ploceus sakalava. 



Ploceus sakalava, Hartl. Beitr. Fauu. Madag. p. 54 (1861) Madagascar ; 

 Milue, Edw. and Grand. Hist. Madag. Ois. p. 453, pis. 177a, fig. 1 ; 

 178, and 304, fig. 7 egg (1885) ; Sibree, Ibis, 1891, p. 441 ; Shelley, 

 B. Afr. I. No. 496 (1896). 



Nesacantbis sakalava, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 487 (1890) Madagascar. 



Adult male. Entire head and throat bright yellow ; back, wings and 

 tail earthy brown, with slightly paler edges to the feathers ; under wing- 

 coverts and inner margins of the quills buff; breast and under tail-coverts 

 buff, shaded with ashy brown, most strongly so on the flanks ; thighs 

 yellowish. "Iris brown; bare skin round the eyes pink ; bill pearl grey; 

 tarsi and feet rosy " (Grandidier). Total length 5-4 inches, culmen 0-7, 

 wing 3-2, tail 2-3, tarsus 0-85. 



Female. Differs in having no yellow on the plumage; forehead and 

 crown brown like the back ; sides of bead and neck ashy, with a broad 

 rufous buff eyebrow, and a band of that colour beneath the eye ; under 

 parts paler, fading into white on the upper throat, down the centre of the 

 breast and on the under tail-coverts. " Bare skin round the eye greenish " 

 (Grandidier). Wing 2 9. 



The Sakalava Weaver is confined to Madagascar. 



This species may be looked upon as the representative of 

 Nelicurvius nelicourvi in the woodlands of the West Coast, and 

 both birds are known to the natives by the same name, 

 " Folisay." They much resemble each other in their feeding 

 and general habits, but the nests of the present species are 

 constructed so closely together that they form a single mass in 

 the tree they have selected. 



The type of the species, an adult male, formerly in Sir 

 Andrew Smith's collection, is now in the British Museum. 

 This species, which has no nuchal-hairs, may be said to repre- 

 sent the Asiatic element in Madagascar, for I see no character 

 for not placing it in the Asiatic genus Ploceus; while Neli- 

 curvius nelicourvi, with its nuchal-hairs, represents the African 

 contingent, and in a way they lead from Ploceus into the 

 Hyphantornis group of genera, which can hardly be dis- 

 tinguished by other characters than the pattern of colouring, 

 which is often recognisable in full plumaged birds only. 



