OP NEW OR r^ITTLE KNOWN BIRDS. 309 



shorter than the third ; circle round the eyes, and the lores, 

 black : wings blackish ; tips of the greater covers with an ob- 

 solete white band, and a broader one on those of the lesser 

 covers : bill black : legs paler: claws broad, short, and well 

 curved. 



87. EuPLECTEs rubra. 



Body entirely scarlet: feathers of the back striped 

 with black : wings and tail black, with pale yellowish 

 edges, {fig. 57. b) 



Inhabits Madagascar. PI. Enl. 134. f. 2. 



Size of the last ; but the bill is short, thick, and perfectly 

 conic; the commissure being distinctly sinuated. Feet re- 

 sembling those of Ploceus : first quill feather minute, the 

 third and fourth longest : tail rounded, subdivaricated ; the 

 feathers narrow and pointed : feet more slender. Lores and 

 stripe behind the eye, black. This is the Emberyza rubra 

 of Gmelin ; the former is the Fringilla erythrocephala ; and 

 both have been confounded by Cuvier and other writers as 

 one species. 



88. EuPLECTEs albirostris. 



Head, neck, and bill white, with a bright yellow sub- 

 crested crown : plumage, above, greyish brown ; beneath, 

 white : breast with a broad black coUar. 



Inhabits India. Mus. Nost. {fig. 57. a, d) 

 Form typical. Total length almost 5f inches ; bill, gape -^ ; 

 ditto, front ^ ; wings 2^; tail, beyond, 1^^^; tarsus^; hind 

 toe and claw ^ ; the claw only /g. Excepting the short bright 

 yellow crest, which covers the crown, the whole of the head, 

 nape, ears, and upper part of the throat, are white : on the 

 breast is a broad black collar, half an inch deep, which termi- 

 nates with having white edges to the feathers : upper plumage 

 grey ; the feathers of the wings and back darkest in the mid- 

 dle ; the quills and covers being margined with yellowish 

 white; from the breast downwards the plumage is also white, 

 tinged with grey on the flanks. Feet large : claws long and 

 slender : the first quill minute, the second longest : bill large, 

 compressed ; the commissure scarcely sinuated. Edwards, pi. 1 89. 



89. EuPLECTES lepidus.* 



Flanks with a blackish patch, the feathers of which 



* I can see nothing in the structure of this bird to induce me to consider 

 it otherwise than as a typical spec\cs o{ Euplectes, which is itself a subgenus, 

 of which almost every known species varies somewhat in the size and form 

 «f the bill, but never in those of the wings and feet. 



