20 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 223 



In Liberia according to Allen (1930), if a male Ploceus cucullatus 

 came to its nest and began to weave in a strip of straw or leaf that it 

 had just brought, two or three neighboring males would immediately 

 seize the hanging strip and try to pull it out and fly off with it. At 

 times he saw several birds hanging on to the same straw. In the 

 Cameroons, Bates (in Bannerman, 1949, pp. 89-91) noted this species 

 as having a "perfect mania for building, and when not building new 

 nests are aU the time repau-ing the old ones." 



This inordinate interest of males of some species of weavers in nest 

 building, together with their habit of using the completed or partial 

 structures as courtship sites, suggests that nest construction has gone 

 far beyond its "normal" function, and has come to include a type of 

 behavior not wholl}^ unlike the bower-building habits of some ptilon- 

 orhynchids, without the specialized differentiation between courtship- 

 site-construction and actual nest building found in the latter group. 

 We not only find extreme activity in building prior to reproductive 

 use of the nests, but we also note apparently aimless duration of it 

 after the nests are in use. Thus, of the little gi'enadier weaver, Grana- 

 tina ianthinogaster, and of the red-billed weaver, Quelea quelea, the 

 cock bird is said to continue to bring feathers, twigs, and other lining 

 materials to the nest all through the incubation period. 



It is apparent from the various items discussed above that as far as 

 antecedent distortions, extensions, and even elimmations of the nest- 

 building habit contribute to the ethological background, the stage was 

 set for the advent of brood parasitism in the weavers. In comparison 

 with the icterids and the cuckoos, the weavers were more predisposed 

 to develop this type of behavior. 



Incubation: Incubation is recorded as done solely by the hen in 

 Euplectes orix, franciscana,^^ and hordeacea, in Ploceus capensis, chry- 

 saeusj^'^ nigerrimus, philippinus, and velatus, in Amadina jasciaia and in 

 Quelea erythrops; and by both sexes in Ploceus luteolus^^ and ocularius, 

 in Quelea quelea, Anaplectes melanotis, Lonchura fringilloides,^^ in 

 Estrilda perreini subflava, and in Pytilia melba. In the last two 

 incubation is said to be done largely by the male. In Quelea quelea, 

 the females do all the nocturnal incubation, but both sexes share this 

 activity during the day. 



Occasionally waxbiUs that normally take care of their eggs and 

 young may act in a way suggestive of brood parasitism. Thus, at 

 Chatsworth, Fort Victoria, Southern Rhodesia, M. P. S. Irwin (in 

 litt.) found on March 16, 1956, a nest of Spermesies cucullatus scutatus 



" Loxia francifcana Isert, Schrift. Qes. Naturf. Freunde, Berlin, vol. 9, 1789, p. 332, pi. 9 (Accra). 

 " Ploceus chrysaeus Hume, Stray feathers . . ., vol. 6, 1878, p. 399 (Tenasserim). 



«* Fringilla luteola LlclUenstein, VerzeicbnLss der Doubletten des zoologischen Museums . . ., 1823, p. 23 

 (Senegal). 

 " Ploceus frinQilloides Lafresnaye, Mag. Zool., 1835, pi. 48 ("India"; Liberia). 



