174 BROAD-SHAFTED WHIDAH-FINCH 



wide ; they are placed vertically, with their outer 

 surface very convex: the two middle feathers, on 

 the contrary, have only three inches of their shaft 

 very broadly wehbed; it then ends in a slender 

 hair of ahout three inches more. All the feathers 

 are more or less vertical, so that the tail is altogether 

 boat-shaped. The bill is black, and the feet brown. 

 Total length, exclusive of the two pair of long 

 feathers, 5f inches ; bill, ^ ; wings, 3 ; lateral 

 tail-feathers, 2^ ; tarsus, T % ; hinder toe and claw 

 equal with the lateral ones ; hinder claw as long as 

 its toe. 



CRIMSON-COLLARED WH1DAH. 



Vidva rubritorques, SWAINS. 



Glossy black ; a crimson collar round the front of the neck ; 

 six of the tail-feathers very elongated. 



MORE than fifteen years ago we saw a specimen of 

 this very lovely species in a collection of birds sent 

 from the interior of Southern Africa, nor did we 

 again meet with it until the Senegal specimen now 

 before us came into our possession. It seems to 

 have been passed over as the Vidua Panayensis of 

 the East Indies, from which however it differs in 

 having a red gorget oh the upper part of the breast, 

 instead of a spot of red in the middle of the body ; 



