PARASITIC WEAVERBIRDS 97 



species. Skead (in litt.) once saw a male going through a display 

 dance with his nuptial tail plumes still short but started in their 

 growth. A case of fully consummated display was observed in Ghana 

 by Donald W. Lamm, who sent me the following notes: "At the end 

 of August, males were displaying regularly to females, dancing up 

 and down in front of them. One female was on a telegraph wire with 

 a male bouncing directly over her. The up and down movement of 

 the tail is obviously an important element in display, and the males 

 seem to be in an absolute frenzy of emotion. Finally he dropped on 

 her back and copulated. She then flew off and he flew down to the 

 ground. In each case of full display there were only the two birds 

 (one male, one female) present." 



An extreme development of the usual courtship of the pintail was 

 described by Boosey (1956, p. 79), who hberated a number of them 

 from his aviary in England. They stayed in the immediate vicinity 

 and returned regularly to feed in the cages left open for this purpose. 

 Boosey wrote that "tirelessly the male Whydahs would fly higher 

 and higher into the sky. Then suddenly they would turn and do their 

 'bolt from the blue' act, descending rapidly in a steep spiral mth 

 their long supple black tail feathers streaming out behind them." 

 As far as I know, this "bolt from the blue" is a variation from the 

 courtsliip dance that has not been reported for this species in a com- 

 pletely wild state. The variation also suggests a possible root for the 

 development of the aerial diving performance of the paradise widow 

 bird (see pp. 144-145). 



Recently V. G. L. van Someren (1956, pp. 501-503) described 

 quite vividly the onset of courtship and the breaking up of the "winter" 

 flocks near Ngong, Kenya Colony. 



Probably long before the flock has split up there will have been some evidence 

 of approaching sexual activity; males will have displayed, jumping up and with 

 rapid wing beats hovering for a few moments, then dropping among the feeding 

 flock again. This display will be maintained, developed and exaggerated by the 

 remaining cocks. While the few hens are quietly feeding on the ground a male 

 jumps up and hovers in front of a hen, his tail "plumes" waving and bending as 

 he rises and falls. The hen makes off and flies to a bush . . . [and] the male 

 pursues her. He starts hovering again, and as he moves from side to side in the 

 air the hen crouches and watches him with moving head and clicking bill. This 

 is a preliminary to a further split in the small flock; if two males have remained, 

 one will go off with two or three hens to some other area. The remaining cock 

 increases the frequency of his display and then one may see the mating taking 

 place. But the hen does not accept the male readily, and he redoubles his antics. 

 As he hovers the bird is held upright, the head just a little forward and the tail 

 well down, so that with each jerky movement the long tail feathers move in a 

 series of waves and curves." 



Van Someren also wrote that the males at times may be polygamous. 

 He had a male and three females under close observation in his sane- 



