190 



RED-BREASTED BENGALY. 



Estrelda sanguinolenta, SWAINS. 



^Ji OVC i 1!^* brown ; beneath varied with 

 ~ith transverse brown 



Pringilla sanguinolenta, PI. Col. PI. 221, fig. 2. 



THE remaining species of weavers belong to a group 

 which we have separated from the former, on ac- 

 count of their much smaller feet and shorter bill 

 the upper mandible of which is much broader at 

 the top than it is high on the sides. This structure 

 we consider a modification of the depressed, or Juri- 

 rostral form ; although the bill, when the mandibles 

 are closed, becomes conic. Now this character of 

 the breadth of the upper mandible is precisely what 

 we find m the genus Coccothraustes, which is the 

 fissirostral genus in the adjoining circle of hard- 

 ills, but which has not the spurious quill of the 

 true wearers seen in the present group. 



The great number of species composing this 

 division, naturally leads us to expect many slight 

 variations in structure; and such there are. Of 

 these divisions, or sub-genera, Estrelda appears to be 

 one and the birds composing it are typically known 

 by their more lengthened and graduated tails, and 

 more elongate conic bills. These birds, as shewing 

 an affinity to the whidahs, and particularly to V. 



