PARASITIC WEAVERBIRDS 55 



Juvenal female: Indistinguishable from the corresponding plum- 

 age of the male. 



Anomatospiza imberbis butleri 



Little known. Adult male smaller than nominate form (wings 

 G2-69 mm.; tail 36-39 mm.). Bill lighter broAvn. Dorsal plumage 

 with narrower streaks. 



Miscellaneous Data 



Neuby-Varty (in litt., June 24, 1956) wrote that when resting, the 

 cuckoo finch seemed to have a definite preference for the same spot 

 day after day. The male bird usually perched a little above the 

 female. One pair regularly used a patch of dead reeds; another one 

 used some dead branches that a native had put around his small 

 garden; a third pair used a small, 6-foot tree, the top half of which 

 was dead and leafless, and also a barbed-wire fence next to the tree. 



Other wi'iters reported that this species is wary and difficult to ap- 

 proach. It perches only a few feet from the ground and flies off mto 

 cover when danger threatens. These reports agree with my own ex- 

 perience with the species near Nairobi. According to Irwin (1952, p. 

 115), on the ground it assumes an upright position and walks with 

 an awkward gait. 



After the breeding season is over, the birds may gather in flocks 

 containing 200 or more individuals. In late July 1925, V. G. L. van 

 Someren and I observed a loose flock of at least 50 birds in a little 

 swamp not far from the city limits of Nairobi. 



According to Ohnesorge (1924, p. 579), the cuckoo finch was kept 

 in captivity in Berlin, but nothing was recorded of its habits there. 



Short-Tailed Widow Birds: Subgenus Hypochera 



Status of Hypochera: The short-tailed species of widow birds, 

 which are commonly known as indigo finches or combassous (here- 

 inafter called combassous), have generally been treated as a genus 

 distinct from Vidua and Steganura merely because in breeding plum- 

 age the males have none of the rectrices elongated as do the more 

 typical widow birds. Among recent authors, Delacour is the lead- 

 ing advocate for combining Hypochera and Vidua, although this com- 

 bination was first suggested as long ago as 1880 by Forbes (1880, p. 

 475). Bannerman, Bates, Chapin, Grant, Mackworth-Praed, Rob- 

 erts, Sclater and others used the name Hypochera for the short-tailed 

 species. The chief argument advanced by Delacour for including this 

 group in Vidua is that aside from its elongated median rectrices, one 

 species of the latter group. Vidua hypocherina, is remarkably similar 

 to the species of Hypochera. 



