PART III. 



THE BIRDS OF AFRICA. 



The avifauna of the Dark Continent, even of those parts 

 of it which are comprised within the hmits of the British 

 Empire, is one comprising so many farnihes, genera, and 

 species, of all sorts and conditions of buds, that it is ab- 

 solutely impossible to review them all in the limits at our 

 disposal, so that a selection will haye to be made, as 

 comprehensive a one as possible, but not by any means 

 exhaustive. 



Thirty of the first will be considered in reasonable detail, 

 eighty-nine of the second, and one hundred and fifty-nine 

 of the last, — a selection, it is hoped, that will give a good, 

 general idea of the birds of Africa included M'ithin the 

 borders of Queen Victoria's dominions, but not necessarily 

 confined to them. 



THE WEAVERS. 



This group receives its name from perhaps the most re- 

 markable of the many types included in it, not the most 

 brilliant in point of colouring, indeed, though some of them 

 are suflaciently noticeable in that respect, but on account of 

 the extraordinary development of the nest-building instinct, 

 which is scarcely equalled, and certainly not surpassed, in 



any other bird. 



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