Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 2).djvu/193

Rh 723. Ploceus manyar. The Striated Weaver-bird.

Fringilla manyar, Horsf. Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii, p. 160 (1820). Ploceus manyar (Horsf.), Blyth, Cat. p. 115 ; Horsf. fy M. Cat. ii, p. 514 ; Jerd. B. /.'ii, p. 348; Hume, N. $ E. p. 440 ; Anders. Yunnan Exped., Aves, p. 598 ; Legye, Birds CeyJ. p. 646 ; Hume, Cat. no. 695 ; Oates, B. B. i, p. 360 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 260 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii, p. 496 ; Oates in Hume's N. 8f E. 2nd ed. ii, p. 121.

Bamani bay a, Hind, in the Deccan ; Telia bay a, Beng. ; Bawoyi in Rungpore.

Coloration. Male. After the autumn inoult the forehead and crown are yellow ; throat, cheeks, ear-coverts and sides of neck black or brownish black; lower plumage fulvous, each feather striated with black down the centre, except on the abdomen and under tail-coverts ; upper plumage dark brown edged with pale fulvous ; wings and tail brown edged with yellowish ; the throat is sometimes coloured a pale brown, and the intensity of the fulvous on the lower parts varies much.

After the partial spring moult the forehead, crown, and nape become deep yellow ; the supercilium and the spot behind the ear-coverts disappear, and the whole of the sides of the head and neck together with the cheeks, chin, and throat become blackish brown Female. Resembles the male in winter plumage.

The male in summer has the bill bluish black, paler at gape ; the female in summer and both sexes in winter have the bill yellowish horn-colour ; the iris is at all times brown, legs flesh-colour, and claws pinkish horn.

Length nearly 6 ; tail 1-8; wing 2-7; tarsus -8; bill from gape -7-

Distribution. The whole Empire from the foot of the Himalayas southward to Ceylon on the one hand, and to about the latitude of: Moulmein in Tenasserim on the other. This species also occurs in Java.

Habits, $c. Breeds throughout the rains, attaching its nest, which resembles that of P. bay a, but has a shorter funnel, to the extremities of several leaves of elephant-grass. The eggs measure about *8 by -58.

Genus PLOCEELLA, Oates, 1873.

The genus Ploceella differs from Ploceus in many important particulars. The bill is much shorter, being no longer than it is high ; the nape is furnished with a few short hairs, and the tail is much longer and more rounded. The plumage of the male in summer is largely yellow. The nest differs much from that of a Ploceus, being supported at the sides by reeds and not suspended from their tips ; it has no tubular entrance, and the exterior surface of the nest is of quite a different appearance, being rough and coarse