1880.] MR. W. A. FORBES ON TWO PLOCEINE BIRDS. 475 



was proposed by Mr. Sclater, as the type of a peculiar family, Leptoso- 

 midae. This should be placed in the series of Pasieriform Aaomalo- 

 gonatous birds as defined by Prof. Garrod', next to the Coraciidce, 

 with which its relations are most intimate. Indeed it is possible 

 that, when the anatomy of the allied genera, Brachypteracins, Geo- 

 biastes, nndAtelornis'^ becomes fully known, the truth of Mr. Sharpe's 

 proi^osition^, that Leptospma should be relegated to the position merely 

 of a subfamily of the Coraciidse, may be established. 



4. On two rare Ploceine Birds now or lately living in the 

 Society's Menagerie. By W. A. Forbes, B.A., F.L.S., 

 Prosector to the Society. 



[Eeceived June 2, 1880.] 

 (Plate XLVII.) 



.1. Vidua splendens. (Plate XLVII. fig. 1.) 

 Vidua splendens, Reichen. Orn. Centralbl. 1879, p. 114. 



On the 17th of July, 1878, Mr. Archibald Brown presented to 

 the Society, with some other birds, a specimen of a small Weaver-bird, 

 which, being then "out of colour," was entered on the list of addi- 

 tions as Vidua principalis, the common and well-known " Pin-tailed 

 Whydah bird." Last summer this bird had assumed an entirely 

 blue-black plumage, like that of Hijpochera nitens, also a common 

 cage-bird. But I was struck by the appearance of the beak and feet, 

 these being of a bright coral-red colour, whereas in H. nitens they are 

 only pale flesh-coloured. The tail-feathers, too, were slightly tijjped 

 with white, and the two central ones became gradually slightly more 

 lengthened than the others, and so projected beyond them. The 

 accompanying figure (Plate XLVII. fig. 1) shows the appearance of 

 this bird at that time, as sketched from life by Mr. Smit. Unfortu- 

 nately it died on the 29th of March in the present year, being then 

 in very poor plumage, as it was moulting; on dissection it proved to be 

 a male. Thinking I had here a new species of Hypochera to deal 

 with, I took the skin with me, on a late visit to Berlin, to show to 

 Drs. Hartlaub, Cabanis, and Reichenow. The latter gentleman speedily 

 recognized this bird as the young male of a species he had lately 

 described from E. Africa as Vidua splendens (Orn. Centralbl. 1879, 

 p. 114). Of this only a single specimen was collected at Kibaradja, 

 E. Africa, by Dr. Fischer, and is now in the Berlin Museum. A 

 sketch from this bird is reproduced in the distant figure of the ac- 

 companying Plate ; as will be seen from it, the male bird, when fully 

 adult, possesses enormously elongated rectrices, the two of each 



1 P. Z. S. 1874, p. 119, and I. c. 1878, p. 99. 



^ The osteology of these genera, with some other points, is figured in Gi-an- 

 didier's work on pis. 97-99, 101, 102, 103a. 

 3 Ibis, 1871, p. 187. 



