PARASITIC WEAVERBIRDS 99 



noted thai a male in full plumage was in daily "ownership" of a section 

 of a field, about 35 by 100 feet in extent, and had been so for some 

 weeks. Another cock bird, banded with pink bands on both legs on 

 December 6, invaded his territory, and both began to fight viciously on 

 the ground and in the grass. They gripped claws and pecked at each 

 others' heads. The fight continued for three minutes, when one of the 

 birds flew off and left the other temporarily exhausted on liis back in 

 the grass. He soon recovered and pm-sued the other and renewed the 

 battle, this time for two minutes. Another such territorial fight 

 between the two was noted again on December 14. During the next 

 two months the individual marked with pink bands was rarely met 

 with, but on May 5 this bird was found back at his old stand, appar- 

 ently with no rival in sight. He was courting females all around the 

 area. In other words, this male, color banded early in December, 

 was courting hens nearly 5 months later in the same territory, but in 

 the interval he was known to have been evicted from it at least once 

 by another male, who was apparently a previous occupant. V. D. 

 van Someren (1958, p. 165) reported the male pintail as "pugnaciously 

 territorial and allows no other cock near at any time in the area he has 

 selected." 



Recently Beatty {in Rand, 1951, p. 646) noted that in Liberia 

 at about "April the males commenced to select females and by June 

 little groups consisting of one or two males and perhaps a dozen 

 females establish territories. These territories were vigorously de- 

 fended against intruding males." Wliile I consider that this writing 

 is rather loose, without detailed critical evidence behind it, it reflects 

 the general picture of territorial behavior. 



Serle (1957, p. 682) gave a somewhat similar account in eastern 

 Nigeria. He noted that after they acquired breeding plumage, the 

 males left the flocks and established territories, each of which was 

 shared with three or four bh'ds in the "sparrowy" plumage. No 

 attempt was made to determine whether they were females, non- 

 breeding males, or immature birds. Unlike Beatty, Serle found only 

 one adult male in each such territory. V. G. L. van Someren (1956, 

 pp. 501-503), in Kenya, knew of a male and two females that 

 frequented a strip of grassland near the forest at Ngong. He noted 

 that they "ranged over about two acres in one direction and an acre 

 to the south around the corner of the forest." 



Various authors have commented to the effect that this bird is 

 promiscuous, polygamous, and monogamous in its breeding. In fact, 

 the observational data vary so much that at times even the same ob- 

 server has been led to opposite conclusions. Thus V. G. L. van 

 Someren (1956, pp. 501-503) gave evidence of polygamous behavior 

 in a male pintail, but in an earlier paper (1922, p. 153) based on 



