4 VIDUINE 
61. Mantle never striped; hind claw shorter 
and stouter; none of the inner feathers of 
the wing lanceolate; tail-feathers never 
obtusely pointed. Plumage very similar 
in both sexes at all times of the year . . Estrildine. 
b. Bastard-primary larger, broader and not 
sharply pointed; tail always square or 
rounded “=r od Neer ee a) ee eee ace eEwoceniie: 
Subfamily I. VIDUINA. 
Bill stout, shorter than the head and varying in colour according to the 
season. Wing with a bastard-primary which is very small, narrow and 
sharply pointed. Young birds, females, and adult males after the autumn 
moult have the tail square or rounded, and the plumage very Lark-like in 
colouring ; the males for the breeding season (Quelea excepted) assume a 
totally different and more beautiful plumage, and often the shape and size 
of the tail greatly alter. The species mostly breed on or near the ground 
in marshy places, and construct an oval, domed nest of grass. 
The fifty-three known species of this subfamily are all 
confined to Tropical and South Africa. 
This subfamily is particularly subject to a law of Nature, 
very little understood, by which its members are liable to vary 
somewhat in colouring. For instance: to this law is due the 
variation in the colour of the bill in members of the genus 
Hypochera ; the presence or absence of black feathers on the 
chin in Vidua serena ; the scarlet or pale yellow colouring of 
the collar in Coliuspasser ardens ; the variable amount of 
yellow on the flanks of Pyromelana ladoensis; the black on 
the head and throat of Quelea quelea and Q. exthiopica, this 
disappearing entirely in some specimens, when they assume the 
plumage described as Q. russi. 
These variations probably depend to some extent upon the 
constitution of the individual bird being affected by the change 
in the flora and insect fauna of the large area over which they 
are distributed. 
