PLOCEUS PHILIPPINES. 



(THE COMMON WEAVER-BIRD.) 



Lowia philippina, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 305. no. 36 (1760), ex Brisson. 



Ploceus philippinus (L.), Sykes, P. Z. S. 1832, p. 105 ; Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 115 



(1849); Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 125(1852); Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 



1854, xiii. p. 257; Walden, Trans. Zool. Soc. 1877, ix. p. 210 ; Hume, B. of Tenass., 



Str. Feath. 1878, p. 399; Ball, ibid. 1878, vii. p. 222. 

 Ploceus haya, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1844, xiii. p. 945 ; Jerdon, B. of Ind. ii. p. 343 (1863) ; 



Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 463 ; Adam, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 387 ; Legge, Proc. R. S. 



Tasmania, p. 30 (1873); Hume, Nests and Eggs, ii. p. 437 (1874); Ball, Str. Feath. 



1874, p. 420; Hume & Butler, ibid. 1875, p. 495; Hume, ibid. 1877, p. 323; 



Davidson & Wender, ibid. 1878, vii. p. 85. 

 Le Toucnctm-courvi, Buffon, Nat. Hist. Ois. iii. p. 465 ; Baya, Hind. ; Chindora, Bengal. ; 



Bavoi or Talbali, Bengal. ; Parsupu-pitta, Telngu ; Manja-kumvi, Tamil (Jerdon) ; 



P astro carpenteiro, Portuguese in Ceylon ; TJnickenam Jiuruvi, lit. " Basket-maker 



bird," Ceylonese Tamils. 

 Tatta kurulla and Wacla Jcurulla, Sinhalese. 



Adult male. Length 5-7 to 6-0 inches; wing 2"6 to 2-8; tail 1-8 to 2-0; tarsus 0-8; middle toe and claw 0-9 to 0-95; 



bill to gape 0-65 to 0-7. 

 Iris hazel-brown ; bill blackish brown, lightish at gape and base of lower mandible ; legs and feet dusky or reddish 



fleshy, claws brownish. 



Breeding-plumage. Forehead, head above, chest, and sides of upper breast glistening saffron-yellow, blending into the 

 brown of the nape and hind neck, the feathers of the interscapular region edged likewise with yellow ; back, 

 wings, and tail sepia-brown, paling on the upper tail-coverts, which are generally tipped with yellowish ; the 

 coverts, tertials, and most of the secondaries with broad fulvous-grey edgings ; primaries and rectrices with pale 

 margins ; lores, orbits, face, ear-coverts, and throat blackish brown, paling on the chin, breast, and lower parts 

 into whitish, with a pale brownish wash on the flanks and thighs ; shafts of the flank-feathers dark. 



In nonbreeding-plumage the iris is paler, the bill brownish above, fleshy at base beneath ; the yellow parts are wanting, 

 the head being brown as the neck, with a brownish-white supercilium ; the ear-coverts and face brown, and the 

 chin and throat whitish, the chest being washed with fulvous. The change to the nuptial dress takes place by 

 an alteration in the feathers, the tips first assuming the yellow and black colours respectively. 



Adult female. Length 5*3 to 5 - 6 inches; wing 2-4 to 2'6; tarsus - 75. Soft parts as in the winter male, and the 

 plumage similar. There is frequently a yellowish hue on the eye-stripe and about the chest and throat. 



Young. On leaving the nest the bill is brownish fleslry, with the margins yellowish. 



Upper surface dark brown, edged with fulvous-grey, most broadly on the wing-coverts and tertials ; supercilium buff ; 

 chin and lower parts whitish ; the breast fulvous ; lower parts whitish. 



A young female (10th October) has the head- and back-feathers edged with tawny, the rump fulvous-brown ; tail pale 

 brown, the bases of the feathers with yellowish edges ; primaries margined with yellowish-grey margins ; a broad 

 fulvous supercilium ; ear-coverts brown ; cheeks fulvous, spotted with brownish ; chin and throat white : chest 

 and flanks tawny fulvous, with dark narrow shaft-stripes at the sides of the chest and on portions of the flanks ; 

 lower parts whitish ; under tail- and under wing-coverts buff. This example is in moult, but not losing the quill- 

 or tail-feathers. 



In the following July immature females want the dark shaft-stripes on the chest, a few being only visible on the sides; 

 the throat and chest are delicate tawny yellowish ; the lesser wing-coverts conspicuously tipped with whitish, and 

 the greater margined and tipped with the same ; primaries and tail-feathers narrowly edged with yellow. An 



4n 



