PARASITIC WEAVE RBIRDS 15 



female feed the young; in four Sitagra epp., namely, vitellina,'' cucuUata, spekei, 

 and jacksoni, there is evidence that only the males build, while in S. rubiginosa 

 only the females feed the young. Thus the indications are that polygamy is a 

 character of the subgenus Sitagra, as it may be of the subgenus Xanthophilus also. 



In the Asiatic weaver, Ploceus philippinus, studied by Ali (1958) : 



The nests are built entirely by the males. The females appear at the colonies, 

 singly or in small parties, to prospect for laying sites, only after the nests have 

 reached a fairly advanced stage of construction. If a female approves of a 

 certain half-built nest she appropriates it, whereupon the cock accepts her as 

 his mate and proceeds to complete the structure for her. As soon as she has 

 settled down to incubation of the eggs, the cock commences to build another 

 nest on a neighboring branch. In due course this nest is similarly taken up by 

 a second female. Thus cocks are "progressively polygamous"; each may have 

 2 or 3 — exceptionally even 4 — nests, more or less concurrently, during a normal 

 breeding season which lasts about three months. 



In their compiled data on all the East African species of weavers, 

 Mackworth-Praed and Grant (1955) recorded polygamy in Ploceus 

 suhaureus (p. 923), Anaplectes melanotis (pp. 942-944), several species 

 of Euplectes (pp. 949-958) — orix, nigi'oventris , hordeacea, capensis, 

 and afra — and also in Coliuspasser alhonotatns ^ (p. 965), and Drepano- 

 plectes jacksoni^ (p. 973). To these may be added Ploceus velatus 

 and nigerrimus. There is inconclusive evidence that the species of 

 Coliuspasser and of Drepanoplectes may be monogamous (Friedmann, 

 1950, p. 297). 



Of the bishop birds (Euplectes), Lack's study (1935) of E. hordeacea 

 showed that each male has a territory with well-defined limits, which 

 it rarely leaves, and which it defends against other males and strange 

 females. Each cock has a succession of hens, each of which it courts 

 and for each of which it builds a nest, one at a time. As many as 

 three hens, each with a nest, were recorded simultaneously in the 

 territory of a single male bird. Lack found that the so-called court- 

 ship display of the male was actually correlated with the territory and 

 not with courtship of the female. 



Lack's findings call to mind Emlen's recent report (1956) on a 

 number of species of Euplectes, whose territorial behavior may be 

 summed up as follows: Several related species may nest close together 

 in a single area. Within the area males of the several species establish 

 discrete territories on which they display indiscriminately to females 

 of any of the species, and from which they drive away males of their 

 own kind or other kinds. "These trans-specific behavioral responses 

 suggest that in these birds the distinctive features of the males' 



I Fringilla litelUna Lichtenstein, Verzelchuiss der Doubletten des Zoologischen Museums . . ., ISliS, p. 

 23 (Senegambia). 

 ' Vidua albonotata Cassin, Proc. Acad. Nat. Scl. Philadelphia, vol. 4, 1848, p. 65 (Durban). 

 • Drtpanoplectes jacksoni Sharpe, Ibis, ser. 6, vol. 3, 89, p. 246, pi. 8 (Masailand near Nakuru). 



