2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I45 



regarded Sporopipes as fairly close to the ancestral line of both Ploceinae and 

 Estrildinae. 



I still find it difficult to visualize a possible common ancestor for these two 

 subfamilies. Sushkin considered the Vidua group to be fairly close to the 

 Estrildinae, yet showing some rather primitive characters in their anatomy. I 

 have always felt that the Viduinae, now commonly raised to subfamily rank, are 

 closely allied to the Estrildinae, of which they appear to be always nest parasites. 

 They share the curious mouth markings and gape wattles of nestlings, and these 

 were not acquired independently, in my opinion, by the Viduinae through 

 mimicry. 



None of the characters that have been cited for the recognition 

 of the Estrildidae is completely trenchant, and none is wholly con- 

 stant. While it is true that the estrildines show no seasonal plumage 

 dimorphism, which many of the ploceids do have, there are numbers 

 of the latter group that agree in this respect with the v/axbills. 

 Among such examples may be cited such genera as Amhlyospisa, 

 Bubalornis, Dinemellia, Histurgops, Malimhus, Passer, Pctronia, 

 Philetairus, Phormoplectes, Plocepasser, Ploceus (many species, 

 especially of the subgenera Heteryphantes, Hyphanturgus, Icteropsis, 

 Melano ploceus, Melanopteryx, Otyphantes, and Xanthoploceus, al- 

 though many other species have marked seasonal plumages in the 

 adult males), Sorella, Sporopipes, and Symplectes. As shown in my 

 i960 summary, the presumed behavioral differences are also not con- 

 stant and therefore they cannot be looked upon as trenchant systematic 

 criteria. It may seem that the point at issue is a very minor one — 

 whether we have two closely related families or two subfamilies of 

 one family — but the difference in the status of the two is supposed 

 to reflect something of the closeness or remoteness of their relation- 

 ship, and this is important. 



The recognition of a separate family Estrildidae, based on ad- 

 mittedly "average," nontrenchant characters, would result in either 

 of two unfortunate situations. If the viduines were to be included 

 as a specialized subfamily of the waxbills, the supposed criteria of 

 the family would break down completely. If the viduines were not 

 included, but were left as a subfamily of the Ploceidae, they would 

 then be separated systematically from the birds to which they seem 

 most closely allied. The closeness of their affinity to the waxbills 

 appears to be agreed upon by most students of the viduines — Chapin, 

 Delacour, Friedmann, Sushkin, and others. For that matter, Steiner, 

 who places them as a subfamily of the Ploceidae and recognizes a 

 separate family for the waxbills and their relatives, admits that the 

 widowbirds developed reflection globules and buccal patterns essen- 



