112 ON THE cee 
merely upon the assertion of icici ey. 
liarity of structure: the margin of the upper mandit 
much sinuated as frequently to produce on each side ; 
absolute festoon, like that seen in the typical hs Sue 
and which is obviously intended to break in p har 
coleopterous insects. As we have elsewhere* entered int 
many details regarding the subgenera of Ploceus, 
reader must be content with a hasty glance. The typi. 
cal species are the largest, and have the longest bills 
In Euplectes, we have some birds of the most brillian 
scarlet and black pene remarkable also for the greai 
: size and slenderness of thei 
feet. Vidua presents us witk # 
those elegant finches peculia 
to Western Africa, the male 
of which, in the breeding 
season, are ornamented witt 
tails of an extraordinary size 
and structure, as in Vidua phe 
nicoptera Sw. (fig.161.). Can 
this group represent the Para- 
diseade ? We confess such was 
once our opinion ; and yet we 
cannot discover how they can 
be removed from the situation 
we here assign them, so as to 
bring them in as the tenuiros- 
tral type of the Coccothra A | 
tine, —a rank we have, for the 
present, assigned to Carduelis. ' 
Beating she genus Ploceus, of which the foregoing A 
are the most prominent fori! we come to the Ame 
rican group of Tiaris, a small assemblage of pretty 
little birds, most of which, as the name implies, are 
crowned with crests. All the species appear eer 
America ; some show an affinity to Ploceus, others t 
the arial tanagers (Vemosia), while two or three fro 
Brazil closely resemble the goldfinches. Thus conduct 
* Birds of Western Africa, i. p. 158. 
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