PLOCEFS PHILIPPINUS. 
(THE COMMON WEAVEE-BIRE.) 
Loxia ])Mlip'pina, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 305. no. 36 (1760), ex Brisson. 
Ploceus pUlipinnus (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. 32o ; 
Davidson & Wender, ibid. 1878, vii. p. 85. 
Le Toucnam-courvi, Buffon, Nat. Hist. Ois. iii. p. 465 ; Baya, Hind. ; Chindora, Bengal. ; 
Bawi or Talbali, Bengal. ; Parsupu-pitta, Telugu ; Manja-kuruvi, Tamil (Jerdon) ; 
Pastro carpenteiro, Portuguese in Ceylon ; Tliuclcenam kuruvi, lit. “ Basket-maker 
bird,” Ceylonese Tamils. 
Tatta kurulla and Wada kurulla^ Sinhalese. 
Adult male. Length 5‘7 to 6-0 inches; wing 2-6 to 2-8 ; tall 1‘8 to 2-0 ; tarsus 0-8; middle toe and claw 0-9 to 0-95; 
bill to gape O'Go to 0-7. 
Iris hazel-brown ; bill blackish brown, lightish at gape and base of lower mandible ; legs and feet dusky or reddisli 
fleshy, claws brownish. 
Breediwj-plumarje. 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 nonbreedintj-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 supereilium ; the ear-coverts and face brown, and the 
chin and throat wFitish, 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 0-75. 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 fleshy, with the margins yellowish. 
Upper surface dark brown, edged with fulvous-grey, most broadly on the w4ng-eoverts and tertials ; supereilium 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 supercilinm ; 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 wdng-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 tawmy yellowish ; the lesser wing-coverts conspicuously tipped with w'hitish, and 
the greater margined and tipped with the same ; primaries and tail-feathers narrowly edged with yellow. An 
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