122 PLOCEID^ QUELEA 



Key to the Species. 



a. Forehead, sides of face and upper throat black... Q. quelea, p. 122. 

 c. Forehead, sides of face, and upper throat 



yellowish -buff Q. quelea russi, p. 124. 



Quelea quelea 





65. Quelea quelea. Bed-billed Weaver. 



Emberiza quelea, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 310 (1766). 



Loxia lathami, Smith, Rep. Exp. Cent. Afr. App. p. 51 (1836). 



Quelea sanguinirostris, Bp. Consp. i, p. 445 (1850) ; Gurney in Ander- 



sson's B. Damara Land, p. 173 (1872) ; Holub and Pelzeln, Orn. 



Siidafr. p. 116 (1882). 



Ploceus lathami, Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 186 (1867). 

 Quelea quelea, Sharpe, ed. Layard 's B. S. Afr. p. 458 (1884) ; id. Cat. 



B. M. xiii, p. 257 (1890) ; Shelley, Ibis, 1886, p. 357 ; id. B. Afr. i, 



p. 25 (1896) ; Butler, Foreign Finches, p. 312, pi. (1894). 



Description. Adult male in breeding plumage. Above, mantle 

 and back brown, the centres of feathers darker ; lower back and 

 rump lighter ; wings brown, the primaries edged with yellow, the 

 remaining quills with whitish-brown ; tail-feathers brown edged 

 with whitish-brown ; forehead, lores, sides of face, and upper 

 throat black ; crown, nape, sides of neck, and remaining under 

 surface bright rose-pink ; the centre of breast and abdomen white ; 

 edge of wing yellowish ; axillaries and under wing-coverts white ; 

 under surface of quills light brown, their inner edges paler. 



Iris brown ; bill bright red ; feet pinkish. 



Length 4-75 ; wing 2-75 ; tail 1-75 ; tarsus 0-75 ; culmen 0*55. 



Young males when breeding have sometimes no trace of pink on 

 the crown and lower surface of body, these parts being of a uniform 

 straw-colour. 



Adult male in winter. Resembles the female, but the crown and 

 under surface of body are ash-brown (the crown in the female being 



