148 PLOCEID^] VIDUA 



A nest brought to Heuglin in Abyssinia, and ascribed by 

 him to the present species is, from the description, obviously that 

 of one of the African Tailor-birds. 



"X^X,/^ &Y\A*S\~&^ 



78. Yidua regia. Shaft-tailed Widow Bird. 



Emberiza regia, Linn. Sijst. Nat. i, p. 313 (1766). 



Vidua regia, Cuvier, Eegne Anim. i, p. 389 (1817) ; Layard, B. 8. Afr. 



p. 188 (1867) ; Gurney in Andersson's B. Damara Land, p. 181 



(1872) '^BucMey, Ibis, 1874, p. 381 ; Holub and Pelzeln, Beitr. Orn. 



Siidafr. p. 123 (1882) ; Shelley, Ibis, 1882, p. 354, 1886, p. 342 ; id. 



B. Afr. i, p. 23 (1896) ; Sharpe, ed. Layard' s B. S. Afr. pp. 453, 



848 (1884). 

 Tetraenura regia, Reichenb. Singv. p. 61, Tab. xxvi. figs. 217, 218 



(1861) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii, p. 209. 



Description. Adult male in breeding plumage. Above, crown, 

 back, wing-coverts, secondaries, and four central tail-feathers black, 

 remaining tail-feathers brown, with a white spot near the end of 

 the inner web ; bastard wing, primary coverts and primaries brown 

 edged with whitish-brown ; a collar round the back of neck, sides 

 of neck, cheeks, and entire under surface of body tawny-buff, 

 darker on the sides and flanks ; sides of vent and under tail-coverts 

 black ; a tuft on the flanks and under wing-coverts white ; thighs 

 tawny. 



Iris hazel ; bill and feet red. 



Length to end of longest tail-leathers, 12*00 ; exclusive of long 

 feathers 4*25 ; wing 2*90 ; tail 9'50, exclusive of long feathers 

 1-75 ; tarsus 0-60 ; culmen 0-40. 



The four central, elongated tail-feathers are webbed at their 

 ends for from two to three inches, the rest of them consists of bare 

 shaft. 



Adult female. Eesembles the female of Vidua paradisea, but 

 lacks the reddish -buff crown and eyebrow, also the black streak over 

 the ear-coverts, the crown being whitish with a lateral streak of 

 dusky, the centre streaked with brown ; a white spot on the inner 

 webs of the outer tail-feathers, as in the male. 



Length 4-20 ; wing 2-80 ; tail 2-00. 



Young of the year. Nearly uniform brown, but of a lighter 

 shade than the young of Vidua principalis, the general colour of the 

 lower surface of the body being buff-yellow ; eyebrow, ear-coverts 

 and sides of face buff-yellow. 



