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T H E BAYA WEAVER.
Place us bay a, BLYTH.
'J^'^HIS common Weaver-bird is an inhabitant of the greater part of India and
Ceylon.
The male in breeding-plumage is brown "with black centres to the feathers,
the feathers of the mantle however being yellow with black centres, and the
scapulars bro%vn with paler margins; the lower back is uniformly brown and the
upper tail-coverts are yellow; the wings are dark brown, the lesser coverts with
pale brown edges, the median and greater coverts and secondaries with white or
whitish edges ; the remaining flight and tail feathers with olive yellow edges,' the
tail feathers themselves being pale bro^^^^; crown of head pure golden yellow; a
line along the base of the forehead, the lores, feathers round eye, sides of face,
and ear-coverts blackish brown, the cheeks slightly paler; throat pale brown;
sides of neck golden yellow, with dusky streaks; front of neck and breast
pure golden yellow; abdomen yellowish white ; sides of body pale brown;
thighs pale tawny; under tail-coverts yellowish; under wing-coverts pale tawny;
flights dusk}' below, with greyish inner edges; Length inches. Beak hornbrown,
base of lower mandible yellow; legs flesh-coloured; iris dark brown.
The female has the head brovm, streaked like the back, but the feathers
are not pale-edged, the lores dusky, surmounted by a broad whitish buff
eyebrow; feathers below the eye whitish; ear-coverts greyish brown; sides of
neck pale tawny buff; cheeks, throat and body below whitish buff, nearly pure
white on abdomen and under tail-coverts; front of neck, breast and sides
ochreous buff, more tawny on the flanks which are faintly streaked with dark
brown, the sides of the breast are also slightly streaked with black; under
wing-coverts pale tawny buff; flight-feathers below dusky with yellowish margins
to the inner web. Total length 5A inches. Otherwise like the male.
In the winter both sexes are nearly alike but are more tawny in tint
than in the summer, and have broad yellowish borders to the flight and tail-
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