150 UROLONCHA 
great solidity. The number of the shining white, somewhat 
long-shaped eggs, varied between six and eight in number. 
These measured 0°84 x 0°56. 
Dr. Butler informs us: “The female is usually a little 
smaller than the male and (as Mr. Abraham has pointed out), 
has a narrower, more tapering beak, less swollen at the 
base.” He also mentions: “The love-dance of the Java 
Sparrow is very ludicrous; he bends his body like an arch 
over the perch, turns his head sideways towards the female, 
and lifts himself jerkily up and down, singing all the while, 
and gradually sidling up to his mate.” 
I cannot agree with those ornithologists who refer the 
name Loxia sanguinirostris, Linn., to the Dioch, Quelea quelea 
(Linn.). Linnzeus described his bird as having the feet red 
like the bill, as Asiatic, and on comparing it with Edwards’s 
red-billed “ Brazilian Sparrow,” writes: ‘‘ Sed subtus maculata 
non mea.” ‘his shows that Linnzus’s description was not 
taken from Edwards’s “ Gleanings,” p. 128, p. 271, fig. 2; but 
possibly from a young specimen of the Java Sparrow, with 
which his description most nearly agrees 
Genus V. UROLONCHA. 
Bill stout and swollen at the base, which ends in a right angle on the 
forehead; culmen flattened and curved; keel straight; edges of upper 
mandible festooned; nostrils hidden by the frontal feathers. Wing rounded; 
primaries 1, small, narrow and pointed; 2, 3 and 4, longest. Tail mode- 
rately long and fan-shaped, with the centre pair of feathers more elongated 
and narrowing into points. Tarsi and feet moderate. 
Type. 
Uroloncha, Cab. Mus. Hein. i. p. 173 (1851) . . . . . Uz. molucca. 
Aidemosyne, Reichenb. Singy. p. 14 pine a wee os  Ohemodesta: 
Euodice, Reichenb. t.c.p.46. . . . at) ith) een eacaubaniss 
The genus, as I understand it, ranges from Senegambia to New Guinea, 
and comprises some eighteen species, of which two are natives of Tropical 
Africa, and one only is confined to that continent. These are known to 
dealers in cage-birds as Silver-bills. 
ai 
