_Bill_ lengthened-conic, slightly curved, entire, the base advancing high on the forehead, and dividing the frontal feathers, the culmen curved, the commissure sinuated. _Nostrils_ oval, naked: without a membrane. _Wings_ moderate, rounded, the first quill spurious, the five next nearly of equal length. _Feet_ short, strong, the middle toe longer than the tarsus, the hind toe nearly equal with the tarsus. _Tail_ very short, rounded. DIVISIONS OR SUB-GENERA. MALIMBUS. _Vieil._ Bill more straight, slender, and lengthened. PLOCEUS. _Cuv._ As above. EUPLECTES. _Nob._ Bill of Ploceus. Toes and claws very slender. The greater quills scarcely longer than the lesser; spurious quill very minute. _Type_, Loxia Orix. L. ---- SPECIFIC CHARACTER. _Orange yellow, varied above with black: head, chin, and front of the throat black: nape with a chestnut band._ Oriolus textor. _Auct._ Ploceus textor. _Cuvier. Reg. Anim._ Le cap-more. _Buff. Son. 19, p. 165. Pl. Enl. 375_ (_very bad_). ---- The Weaving Birds, confined to the hotter regions of the old world, are chiefly found in Africa, where they represent the Hangnests (_Icterinæ_) of America: an analogy long since remarked by Buffon. Both these tribes astonish us by the consummate skill with which they fabricate their nests: but the intelligence displayed by the African Weavers is still more wonderful. The curious reader will see a most interesting account of these birds in Paterson's African Travels, or in Wood's Zoography. Of the present species, although very common in Senegal, nothing appears known beyond the simple fact of its weaving, in confinement, between the wires of its cage. Its total length is about six inches, the minor proportions may be correctly ascertained by the scale on the plate.