PARASITIC WEAVERBIRDS 71 



that I ever heard was a somewhat rasping single tsip or dzip note. 

 Chapin (1954, p. 572) noted that the race nigeriae has a call 

 note often given while flj^ng, a harsh cha-cha-cha-cha, and a song 

 consisting of thin twittering chwee syllables. 



Courtship, Territorial Behavior, and Mating 



The glossy combassou has a courtship display similar to that of the 

 East African species Vidua chalybeata. The male either bobs up and 

 down in a jerky movement of very short distances from its perch, or 

 actually flies up from its perch a short but still considerable distance 

 of about 15 or 20 feet, and then back to it again several times in rapid 

 succession, and gives its song as it flies. I observed this behavior on 

 two occasions in January in Southern Rhodesia. In Sierra Leone, 

 Serle (1949, p. 125) noted that the male "hovered with flapping wings 

 for several seconds before the female who was perched on a small tree. 

 This hovering display flight resembles that of Vidua macroura." 

 Chapin ('1954, p. 572) observed similar hovering by males near hen 

 birds in the Belgian Congo, where he also once saw a brown -feathered, 

 second-year male behaving the same way. In Mozambique Lamm 

 (in press) once saw a female combassou of uncertain species courted 

 simultaneously by a male glossy combassou and a male dusky com- 

 bassou, V.junerea. 



Little is known of the territorial behavior of this species, but the 

 fact that certain exposed perches have been noted being used hour after 

 hour and day after day as singing perches by males (probably the same 

 ones) suggests some degree of territoriality. In Nyasaland, Belcher 

 (1930a, pp. 335-336) noted that with the advent of the breeding 

 season, the "winter" flocks break up into pairs, but he gave no details 

 as to the actual disintegration process. 



Eggs and Egg Laying 



As was mentioned in our discussion of hosts, Mackworth-Praed and 

 Grant (1955, pp. 1042-1043) described the eggs as white, but gave no 

 indication of where they got their information and of how they identi- 

 fied the eggs. No doubt all combassous lay unmarked white eggs, 

 but proof for each species is stiU needed. The little that is known of 

 the glossy combassou and its close relatives also suggests that it 

 does not commence to breed until it is 2 years old. 



Hosts 



Although statements in the literature indicate that the glossy com- 

 bassou is parasitic on fire finches, I do not know of a single completely 

 authenticated egg or nestling. Thus, the statements are only assump- 



