576 



PASSERIFORMES 



leaden or horn-coloured. Eoughly speaking, Tanagra contains sixty 

 species, Uuphonia, Ghlorospingus, and Buarremon each over thirty. 

 The flight of these bold, lively, and restless birds — often met 

 with in small parties — is Finch -like and not uncommonly brief; 

 the song, frequently heard in chorus, is mellow and pleasing, 

 accompanied by chattering, whistling, and chirping notes ; the diet 

 consists of insects and fruits, even the latter being occasionally 

 snatched upon the wing ; while worms, larvae, and molluscs are 

 eaten, and some species scratch for food among fallen leaves. 

 The nests are usually shallow fabrics of grass, roots, fibres, moss, 



and lichens, lined 

 with hair or down ; 

 twigs, broad leaves, or 

 fern-stems being com- 

 monly added below : 

 they are sometimes 

 placed in forks of trees 

 or bushes, if not at 

 the ends of branches; 

 sometimes in masses 

 of creepers, or even 

 upon the ground ; that 

 of Pyrruphonia is 

 domed, while that of 

 Mhamphocoelus hra- 

 silius is built in tall 

 grass in marshy places. 

 The two to four eggs 

 are white, bluish, 

 greenish, grey, salmon-coloured, or rich brown, being at times 

 uniform, but generally blotched, spotted, freckled, lined, or scrolled 

 with brown, lilac, red, purple, or black. Procnias is said to lay 

 three or four white eggs in holes in trees or in the soil, upon a 

 bed of roots and plant-stems.^ 



Fam. XXXIV. Ploceidae. — The Weaver-birds, closely allied 

 to the above, and hardly to be distinguished from the Fringillidae 

 except by the tenth primary being distinctly developed, may be 

 divided ^ into the Sub-families Viduinae, occurring in the Ethi- 

 opian, Indian, and Australian Eegions, in which this quill is small 



^ Eiiler, J.f. 0. 1867, p. 411. ■ Cf. Shelley, Ibis, 1886, pp. 301-359 ; 1887, pp. 1-47. 



Fig. 140. — Brazilian Tanager. Rhamphocodus 

 brasUius. x 75°^. 



