107 
RUFOUS-NECKED WEAVER. 
Ploceus textor, Cuvier. 
Orange-yellow, varied abovo with black ; head, chin, and front 
of the throat black ; nape with a chestnut band. 
Le Cap-noir, Buffon, Sen. 19. p. 165. ; PI. Enl. 373. fig. mal. 
— Oriolus textor, A ud . — Ploceus textor, Cm. Reg. An 
Ploceus textor, Zool. Must. 2d series, pi. 37. 
In this species the undulation of the commissure of 
the hill in this and all the insectivorous W eavers (for 
most of these birds feed upon beetles as well as 
seeds), seems analogous to the festoon in the hills of 
the hawks, and facilitates both the breaking of seeds 
and the crushing of hard beetles. The aberrant 
type of Sympledes has nothing of this structure, 
which, with the greater weakness and compression 
of the hill, indicates a different sort of food. In 
Ploceus the spurious quill is always developed, al- 
though the two next are the longest. The present 
species, in short, shows the typical form in every 
respect ; the claws are broad and much curved, and 
the lateral toes equal. It appears common in Sene- 
gal, hut we have not seen the female. 
Total length about 0 : ' f inches ; bill from the gape, 
t 7 3 ; wings, 3j 4 0 ; tail beyond the wings, j' s ; from 
the base, 2 T 3 0 ; tarsus, T 9 0 . 
