THE SOCIABLE GROSBEAK OK WEAVER-BIKD. 



The Soeiuble Grosbeak, of Southern Africa, excels any of its feathered race in the 

 extent, if not in the beauty and extent, of its habitation. Usually selecting a large 

 and lofty tree, often of the mimosa or sensitive plant species, they find imder its 

 ample top and strong wide-spreading branches a good shelter and support for their 

 erection. Having chosen the site, the framework is constructed by the combined efforts 

 of the fraternity at large, who will derive from it a common advantage. The nest is 

 firmly interwoven with the branches of the tree on which it rests, and often a large part 

 of a principal branch is included within its substance. This part of the work being 

 completed, each pair proceeds to the construction of its own nest, which, like the roof, 

 consists of grass. 



The best description we have of these birds is that by Le Vaillaut, in his Travels in 

 Africa. His narrative is as follows : — " I obserA'cd, on the way, a tree with an enormous 

 nest of these birds, to which I have given the appellation of rejviblicam; and as soon as 

 I arrived at my camp, I despatched a few men with a waggon to bring it to me, that I 

 might open the hive and examine its structure in its minutest parts. AYlien it arrived I 

 cut it to pieces with a hatchet, and saw that the chief portion of the structure consisted 

 of a <mass of Bushman's grass, without any mixture, but so compact and firndy baskctted 

 together as to be impenetrable to the rain. This is the commencement of the stiucture ; 



Ploceus Socius. — Loxia Socia of Latham. 



