1890.] F. Finn — Notes on the Ploceidw. 251 



colour," its liarsli unpleasant song, and was an indefatigable weaver 

 when it got grass to work with ; it used to stuff bits of eartli in the 

 work. It still occasionally sings and weaves, and sometimes flies wildly 

 about, as it often did. when in colour. The other bird has always been 

 much milder in demeanour, though more restless, and less tame. It was 

 nearly a month later in compleiiiig its cliatige of plumage; hut latterly 

 I have seen it also behave more like a normal male. 



The brightest bird, the singer and weaver, measures ; lengtli about 

 6|" ; bill from gape about '8" ; wing about 3" ; tail about 21" ; shank 

 about "95." The tail is much more graduated in winter than in summer 

 plumage, and the bill is in the former fleshy, horny on culmen and tip, 

 instead of black as in the full-plumaged bird. 



It may be noted as a remarkable fact that, though the primaries of 

 these birds had been plucked before they came into Mr. Rutledge's 

 possession, and grew again soon after the specimens were acquired l)y 

 the Museum, yet these new quills were again moulted and replaced in 

 the ordinary way with the other feathers. 



A very characteristic point of Ploceus megarhyncJitis is the long tail 

 and short wing ; as is shown by the measuiements of this specimen and 

 of Mr. Hume's, the difference between the length of the wing and tail is 

 only about tlie length of the shank ; in this point, as well as in tlie 

 large amount of yellow in the plumage, P. megarhynchus approaches 

 Plociiella javanensis. It also possesses, like that species, nuchal hairs, 

 but so do all the Indian species of Ploceus, though the absence of these 

 insignificant filo-plumes is given, both by Mr. Gates in the Fauna of 

 British India (Birds, vol. II, p. 174) and Dr. Sharpe in the British 

 Museum Catalogue of Birds (vol. XIII, p. 406) as a character of the 

 genus Ploceus as restricted by them. 



It is not surprising that these authorities both united P. megar- 

 hynchus with P. atrigtila, for no doubt there is a certain amount of 

 intergradation between them, similar to that which occurs between 

 P. atrigula and P. haya^ as noticed by Mr. Hume (Stray Feathers, vol. 

 VI, 1878, p. 400). 



There are in the Indian Museum several specimens of 

 P. atrigula showing an admixture of yellow with the buif of the breast, 

 some of them procuied by myself in Calcutta alive and kept so for a 

 time to see if they would develop more of the yellow colouring — which 

 they did not. Had I remembered this when I looked up P. mega- 

 rhynchus and found that the types were in winter plumage and had been 

 united with P. atriijula by the distinguished authors of the volumes 

 of the "Fauna" and the "Catalogue" above quoted, I might have 

 escaped following their very pardonable mistake which suppressed this 

 magnificent species, by far the finest of the Asiatic Weavers. 

 J, II. 32. 



