

118 PLOCEID^] AMADINA 



seeds, occasionally on small berries and also on beetles. The young 

 are at first fed on grubs and other soft insects. 



The eggs are three or four in number, and vary a good deal in 

 shape and colour. As a rule they are rounded ovates, but some are 

 very elongated. The ground colour is some shade of drab, and 

 they are more or less spotted all over with small dots of brown and 

 greyish purple. They average 0*75 x 0'52. 



The illustration represents a nest of this species in Griqualand 

 West, and is from a photograph by my friend Dr. Marloth, of Cape 

 Town. 



Genus VII. AMADINA. 



Type. 



Amadina, Swainson, Zool. Journ. iii, p. 349 (1827) ...... A. fasciata. 



Bill short, acutely conical, very broad at the base, swollen and 

 rounded ; the culmen broad, flattened, running to a point on the 

 forehead ; both culmen and gonys curved, the edge of the upper 

 mandible festooned towards the base ; nostrils basal, sunken, 

 lateral, hidden by frontal plumes. Wings short and rounded, the 

 first quill minute, the second, third, and fourth nearly equal and 

 longest; the inner secondaries elongated. Tail short and square. 

 Tarsi shorter than the hind toe, strong. Toes long and slender, the 

 outer and inner about equal ; hind claw long and curved. 



The genus contains three species of African Weaver Finches, 

 one occurring in South Africa. 



They are very sparrow-like in their habits and actions, build 

 domed nests in bushes or under the roofs of houses, and lay white 

 eggs. 



64. Amadina erythrocephala. Bed-headed Weaver Finch. 



Loxia erythrocephala, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 301 (1766). 



Amadina erythrocephala, Smith, III. Zool. 8. Afr. Birds, pi. 69 (1841) ; 



Layard, B. 8. Afr. p. 200 (1867) ; Gurney in Anders son' s B. Damara 



Land, p. 174 (1872) ; Holub and Von Pclz. Beitr. Orn. Sildafr. 



p. 131 (1882) ; Sharpe, ed. Layard 's B. S. Afr. pp. 467, 849 (1884) ; 



id. Cat. B. M. xiii, p. 290 (1890); Shelley, Ibis, 1886, p. 313; id. 



B. Afr. i, p. 26 (1896). 



Description. Adult male. Above light ash-grey, the crown 

 nape streaked and tinged with scarlet ; upper tail-coverts 





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