

ORNITHOLOGY OF SECTION D, 1850. 
external rectrices on each side are nearly equal and of ordinary 
length, while the four middle ones, which Riippell mistook for tail- 
covers, are abruptly and very greatly lengthened. Of these four 
middle feathers, the two on one side have their wider surfaces 
turned towards the under gurfaces of the other two. This group 
will include the species V. regia (Linn.), V. principalis (Linn.), and 
V. paradisea (Linn.) V. superciliosa (Vieill.), said to have only 
two rectrices elongate, may probably be also referred to this genus. 
Tn Coliuspasser, on the contrary, all the rectrices are more or 
less elongate. Some of them, as C. macrura (Gmel.), C. macrocerca 
(Licht.), &e., have the tail simply graduated, the middle rectrices 
being of moderate length, and the lateral ones gradually shorter. 
Other species, in which the elongation is carried to a greater extent, 
have the relative length of the rectrices variously modified. In 
C. ardens (Bodd.), (V. panayensis, Gmel.), the tail may be termed 
furcate, the medial rectrices being shortest, and the outer ones gra- 
dually lengthened, though the most external pair is (in my specimens 
at least) somewhat shorter than the penultimate one. In\this species 
the rectrices are hollowed on their uppér side; and it is probable, 
that in the living bird, the rectrices on each side of the centre have 
their upper surfaces turned towards those of the opposite side, as in 
the American “ boat-tailed grackles” (Scaphidurus). This structure 
of the tail, the exact reverse of that which prevails in the majority 
of birds, is still more decidedly shown in the Chera progne (Bodd.) 
of Gray, a bird, which, were it not for the different form of the wing, 
Would rank with Coliuspasser and not with Vidua. 
A series of specimens of Vidua paradisea, in various stages of 
Moult, collected in Kordofan, by Mr. J. Petherick, has revealed a 
Curious fact in the development of the elongated rectrices, which 
appears not to have been before noticed. The tail of this bird is 
4 very anomalous one, the submedial pair of rectrices being very 
greatly elongate, while the medial pair are much shorter, very 
broad, with a smooth hair-like shaft projecting near two inches be- 
Yond the webs. If we now examine the longest (or submedial) rec- 
trices, we shall see that they differ from all the other tail-feathers, 
in presenting a serrated appearance at their margins. In the other 
featherg the barbs end in fine points, so that the webs which they 
Compose terminate in an acute margin. But in this particular pair 
of *eirioess the barbs terminate abruptly, with an obliquely flattened 
