COCCOTHRAUSTIN^. — PLOCEUS. Ill 
employed to break the hardest nuts. In the correspond- 
ing latitudes of America we have the suhgenus Cocco- 
159 borus, which is united to 
Pyrenestes hy the Brazilian 
C. magnirostris {fig.lSQ.), 
or the Loxia angolmsU of 
the old writers. This type 
is inferior in its bill only 
to the last, while some of 
tlie species so closely resem- 
ble the genus Pitglus among the tanagcrs, that they 
can only be distinguished by the notch of the bill being 
very slight, or almost obsolete. Coccothmustes appears 
restricted to the temperate latitudes of Europe, America, 
and Asia : aU the species have long wings ; and they 
appear to be migratory. The two other supposed types 
are African, and at present but little known. 
(127. )The genus Ploceus is by far the most numerous, as 
well as the most beautiful, 
of this division (Enplectes 
ciipenis, fig. I60.). It is 
composed of the weavers, — 
a name given tliem on ac- 
count of that surprising 
skill with which they fabri- 
cate their nests; a cir- 
cumstance of which we 
have already spoken more 
at large.* We have long 
had suspicions that this, in truth, is the typical genus of 
the present subfamily, because it is among these birds we 
find by far the greatest intelligence and tlie most social 
habits, — qualities which are so pre-eminently typical of 
fasorial groups ; and it must be remembered that the 
Fringillidce, as a whole, is the rasorial family of the 
Conirostres. On the other hand, we must not overlook 
the circumstance that the weavers feed as much upon 
insects as upon seeds, — a fact, indeed, vvhich rests not 
• Vol. I. p. 188. 
