PHILET^RUS LEPIDUS.— Smith. 



AvES.— Plate VIII. (Male.) 



P. capite dorsoque pallide flavo-brunneis ; coUo superae, interscapularibusque nigro-brunneis ; plurais 

 albo-marginatis ; remigibus rectricibusque brunneis, harum apicibus isabellinis, gula strigaque aa 

 basin rostri nigris ; genis, coUo subtus, pectore ventreqne pallide isabellinis, vitta longitudinali ante 

 femora nigra, plumis albo-marginatis ; oculis brunneis ; rostro pedlbusque paUidis. 



LoNGiTUDo, 4f uue. 



LoxiA sociA, Latham, Pater's Toy. PI. 19. 



Ploceus socius, Cav. Reg. Animal, torn. i. p. 384. 1817. 



Philet.ertjs LEPIDUS, Smith, Mag. of Xat. History, new series, vol. i. p. 536. 



EuPLECiEs LEPIDUS, Sicaiiisoii, Lard. Cab. Cyclopsedia, vol. Menageries, page 309. 



Colour. — The top of the head, the nape and the back drab brown; the 

 back and sides of neck, and the interscapulars lunber-brown ; each feather 

 margined with pale Isabella colour; chin, and a stripe at the base of the 

 bill which terminates on a line with the eye, black. The wings and tail 

 light umber-brown; the tertiary quill feathers broadly edged and tipt with 

 Isabella colour ; the tail feathers also that colour at their extremities. The 

 sides of the head, the under part of the neck, the breast and belly, a pale 

 Isabella colour ; the flanks pale rusty brown ; in front of each thigh a deep 

 black stripe ; the feathers margined with yellowish white. Bill and legs a 

 pale horn-colour, the former slightly clouded with brown. Eyes dark brown. 



Form, &c.— Figure rather slender ; bill more compressed than in Euplectes ; 

 culmen slightly arched from the base ; commissure sinuated ; legs and toes 

 strong ; tarsi in front covered by transverse plates, the margins of which are 

 distinctly defined ; outer and inner toes nearly of equal length ; claws pointed 

 and much curved, the hinder one not so long in proportion as in the typical 

 species of Euplectes ; wings, when folded, reach to about the middle of the 

 tail. The first or spurious quill feather very short, often scarcely discernible ; 

 the second, third, and fourth nearly of equal length, and the longest ; the 

 extremity of the tail slightly rounded. 



