204 RED- WINGED BENGALY. 



retained; the latter should be obviously written 

 sphenura*. 



Nearly all the types which represent the order of 

 waders have the bill much more lengthened than 

 any of their immediate congeners. We see this 

 throughout all the larger groups of nature, whether 

 in quadrupeds or birds, fishes or insects. We may 

 even trace it in the present sub-family, in the genus 

 Cardudis^ and .we find this same character in the 

 type before us, distinguished as it is by having a 

 more lengthened bill than is to be found in any of 

 the divisions just named. It is separated from 

 Estrelda by its short tail, and from Amadina by its 

 lengthened bill. A second example is that lovely 

 bird the Frinyilla elegans of authors. Both these, 

 in addition to the above characters, have the second 

 quill shortened, and conspicuously narrowed towards 

 the end; the feet are small, and the tail almost 

 even; the bill, as before observed, is shaped like 

 that of Euplectes. 



Of this beautiful and entirely new species we 

 have never seen more than one specimen. The 

 upper parts are light grey or cinereous, inclining to 

 brown ; but all the feathers of the wing, except the 

 scapulars, are deeply margined with rich scarlet. 

 The throat and breast are like the back, but minutely 

 freckled with whitish ; the remaining under parts 

 are nearly white, with transverse cinereous bands on 

 the sides of the body and belly, which bands become 



