PARASITIC WEAVERBIRDS 41 



most of its geographic range. The following data give our present 

 information as to the time of breeding: 



Ethiopia: Northwestern part near Lake Tana, nestlings August to November, 



Kenya: Nairobi, eggs May and June. Kisumu, fledglings June and July. 

 Fort Hail, male in breeding condition, March 30. 



Tanganyika: NestUngs in May. Ngomani, fledgling in August. 



Pemba Island: Breeding September to January. 



Belgian Congo: Breeds during the rains when the warblers are nesting. 

 Near Lake Edward May and June. Southeast of Lake Moero, at Kasengo, 

 January. 



Mozambique: Quihmane Province, February 4-12, males collected with much 

 enlarged testes. 



Northern Rhodesia: Mporokoso, recently fledged young collected May 29 

 (Benson, 1956, p. 45). 



Southern Rhodesia: Umvuma, near Marandellas, and 18 miles from Salis- 

 bury, eggs and young late December to March 5. 



Transvaal: Pretoria, December 17 to February 3, fledglings. 



Songs and Calls 



The only note I ever heard from this species was a sparrow-like 

 double cheet-cheet note repeated several times as the birds flew into 

 the sedges in a little swamp near Nairobi. This note is apparently the 

 same as the one described by V. G. L. van Someren (1918, pp. 282-283) 

 in Kenya and by Benson (1941, p. 41) in Nyasaland. In Mozambique, 

 J. Vincent (1936, pp. 102-103) recorded what seems to be a slight 

 variant given by a bird perched in a tree top, a nasal chirp, choop-ee- 

 choo, much like the chirp of a house sparrow in quality. In Mashona- 

 land, Irwin (1952, p. 114) wrote that the bird gives "a tittering call 

 as it flies and often breaks into a garbled warble especially when 

 coming to rest. The latter call appears to be associated with its coming 

 into breeding condition and probably constitutes its song." In Pemba 

 Pakenham (1939, p. 553) found the song of the male to be a squeaky 

 tsileu-tsileu-tsileu, given with an upward stretching of the neck, and 

 the call note to be a thin squeaky monosyllable, usually uttered while 

 in flight. 



Courtship, Territorial Behavior, and Mating 



No one has described any courtship behavior in wild birds of this 

 species. My own field experience with it was after the breeding 

 season, and so I saw nothing akin to courtship. Ncuby-Varty in- 

 formed me (in litt., December 28, 1950) that in his many years of 

 acquaintance with the cuckoo finch, he has never seen any indication 

 of courtship display; however, according to Chapin (1954, pp. 407- 

 410), a male cuckoo finch in captivit}' was noted displaying by 

 fanning the wings and uttering "sizzling" notes. Unfortunately we 

 have no indication whether a female was present or not, or how per- 



