yee ae Recent Literature. 347 
Chapin on the Classification of the Weaver-Birds.'— This notable 
paper is another result of Mr. Chapin’s studies while a member of the 
American Museum’s Congo Expedition, 1909-1915. The weaver-birds 
constitute the commonest family of African birds and no less than eighty- 
two forms were collected by the expedition so that Mr. Chapin had abun- 
dant opportunity to study them. He was early impressed by the similarity 
in nesting habits in species usually arranged in different sub-families, and 
subsequently a study of the curious markings within the mouths of the 
young, pointed to like relationships. A thorough study of the family after 
his return convinced him that the extent of development of the tenth 
primary which had generally been used as a sole criterion for the separation 
of the two subfamilies ‘ Ploceine’ and ‘Estrildine’ was not a reliable 
character, when it failed to accord with those above mentioned, while the 
association of all the long-tailed species of the family was not a natural 
arrangement as some of them were obviously true ‘ weavers’ (Ploceinz) 
and not ‘ weaver-finches’ (EKstrildine). This latter fact had long been 
suspected by the reviewer and doubtless by others. 
Mr. Chapin’s investigations however did not stop here and in studying 
the relationships of the outlying genera he discovered that T'extor possesses 
such striking structural peculiarities that it must be regarded as consti- 
tuting a distinct family, Dinemillia and perhaps some other genera being 
probably associated with it. The skull of Textor differs from those of all 
other weavers examined in having the fenestre associated with the orbital 
foramina different in form and number, and in the presence of an oblique 
ascending median bar. The sternum however exhibits the most remarkable 
peculiarity, as pointed out to the author by Mr. W. DeW. Miller, in the 
presence of a spina interna, the first recorded occurrence of this process in 
any passerine bird. 
Parmoptila a genus which has been shifted about from the Sylviide to 
the Diczeidz and Paridze was suspected of being a weaver-finch by Mr. 
Chapin, and a subsequent examination of the young discovered the curious 
mouth markings almost as in Nigrita, while the character of the nest as 
described by Bates agrees with those of the weaver-finches. 
Philetairus in all its structural features is apparently a finch and has 
been so considered by some authors, but its remarkable nest is so unlike 
those of the finches and so distinctly Ploceine, that Mr. Chapin prefers to 
keep it among the Weavers in spite of the extreme reduction in the tenth 
primary. We find all gradations in the size of this feather among the 
weavers and Philetairus may well be regarded as the culmination of the 
series, being the only genus to have reached the ‘ nine primaried’ condi- 
tion which is normal in the Fringillide. 
Mr. Chapin’s final arrangement differs from those of recent authors in 
the recognition of a distinct family, Textoride, for Textor and Dinemellia; 
1The Classification of the Weaver-Birds. By James P. Chapin. Bull. Amer. Mus. 
Nat. Hist., Vol. XX XVII, Art. IX, pp. 243-280. May 8, 1917. 
