3 6 4 
PERCHING BIRDS. 
first toe very strong and highly curved. The genus Ploceus is confined to the 
Indian and Malayan regions, and is typically represented by the common weaver- 
bird, or baya ( P . baya ) of India and Ceylon. All these birds construct long 
flask-shaped nests, with a tubular entrance, and lay pure white eggs. 
Masked Weaver- The masked weaver-bird (Hyphantornis larvata), of Abyssinia, 
Bird - may be taken as a well-known representative of an exclusively 
African genus, with over thirty species, which may be distinguished from the 
last by the exposed oval nostrils being partly reached by the plumes at 
the base, and also shut in by a horny membrane. The figured species may be 
The True The true weaver-birds form the comparatively small group, 
Weaver-Birds, common to East and West Africa and the Oriental region, exclusive 
of the Philippine Islands. While in all the preceding genera the culmen of 
the beak is flattened at the base and sometimes crested, in the present and 
allied genera it is rounded at the base; the true weaver-birds being specially 
distinguished by having the nostrils rounded and exposed, and the claw of the 
COMMON AND WHITE-HEADED OX-BIRDS (| nat. size). 
