192 



CRIMSON-EARED BENGALY. 



Estrelda phanicotis, SWAINS. 

 PLATE XIV. 



Grey-brown beneath ; tail blue ; ears, in the male, crimson. 



Fringilla Benghalus, Linn. i. 323, male Fringilla Bengalus, 



Vieill. Ency. Meth. 987, 122 Le Bengali, Bujfon, PI. Etil. 



115, 1, jig. pessima. Blue-bellied Finch, Edwards, 131, 

 female ; Latham, &c. Le mareposa, Vieill. Ois. Chant. PI. 5. 



THE most remarkable peculiarity in this elegant 

 little bird, and that which immediately strikes the 

 observer, is the deep red spot upon the ears of the 

 male. "We propose, therefore, to name it from this 

 circumstance, seeing that the former appellation of 

 Benghalus is in violation of that rule of systematic 

 nomenclature which interdicts all specific names 

 taken from barbarous words. Whether Linnaeus 

 intended to imply that this bird inhabited Bengal, 

 or Benghaly, a name no longer found in the modern 

 geography, is altogether uncertain; but as the 

 French have long applied it to the entire group, it 

 cannot be retained as distinctive of any particular 

 species. 



The form is altogether typical of this section ol 

 type of the genus : the bill is lengthened, conic, and 



