FOUDIA FLAVICANS 495 



Poudia flavicans. 



Foudia flavicans, E. Newton, P. Z. S. 1865, p. 47, pi. i. figs. 1, 2 

 Bodrigues Id.; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 434 Rodriguez. 



Ploceus flavicans, Schl. P. Z. S. 1866, p. 424. 



Neshyphantes flavicans, Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 500 (189G). 



Male in full plumage . Front of head orange scarlet, quiclvly passing into 

 bright yellow on the remainder of the head and throat ; back of neck and 

 the back brown, with broad blackish shaft-bands to the feathers of the 

 mantle, and a narrow yellow band across the rump ; tail dark brown with 

 very narrow olive yellow edges to the feathers ; wings dark brown, with the 

 lesser coverts shghtly paler ; ends of median coverts and the whole of the 

 greater coverts broadly edged with bufi', quills with slightly darker pale 

 edges, narrowest on the primaries, where they have a slight olive yellow 

 tinge ; inner margins of quills whitish ; under wing-coverts like the breast 

 and under tail-coverts buff, with a slight ashy brown shade strongest on the 

 flanks. Iris brown ; bill black ; feet pale brown. Total length 5 inches, 

 culmen 055, wing 2-8, tail 2-0, tarsus 0-9. Eodriguez (H. H. Sclater). 



Female. Differing in having no red or yellow on the plumage ; upper 

 part of head and neck brown like the back ; sides of head rather paler, with 

 the indication of a bufl' eyebrow ; under parts dull yellowish buff, with the 

 flanks and under tail-coverts browner. Iris brown ; Ijill and feet pale brown. 

 Wing 2-65. 5 , 10. 7. 04, Eodriguez (E. Newton). 



The Rodriguez Fody is confined to the Island of Rodriguez. 



This, tlie "Yellow-bird" of the colonists, was perfectly 

 tame, according to Mr. E. Newton, and has a very pretty 

 song not unlike that of our Goldfinch. In habits it resembles 

 F. ruber, " in its way of picking amongst the extreme buds 

 and leaves of branches, hanging often back downwards. Its 

 beak is long, and more like that of this species than of h\ 

 madagascariensis. It is exceedingly numerous, and though 

 many had paired and were evidently breeding, I saw a Hock 

 of at least one hundred, all in tlie brown stage of plumage, 

 and probably many of them therefore immature birds. The 

 adult hens are dark brown, like the same sex in the other 

 two species." 



The nest resembles that of F. ruber. The eggs, three in 

 number, are of a very pale blue, and measure 072 x U'56. 



