PARASITIC WEAVERBIRDS 105 



the following annotated list of recorded victims. The close similarity 

 in the pattern and color of the palate markings and the gape wattles 

 of the Estnlda and its parasite are not due to any evolutionary mimetic 

 process, but reflect the close phylogenetic relationship between them 



Tawny-flanked longtail: Prinia subflava (Gmelin) ^4 



One record refers to a nest containing tlu-ee eggs of this warbler 

 (race P. s. affinis) and one of the parasite, found in tall weeds among, 

 some rocks in one of his tobacco fields on his farm near Marandellas, 

 Southern Rhodesia, by B. M. Neuby-Varty, to whom I am indebted 

 for this information. He collected the eggs on February 15, 1957, 

 but had found the nest with all the eggs already present a week earlier. 

 He had left them to hatch and took them only after it had become 

 obvious that the nest had been deserted. 



This record, the only one for a longtail as a host of the pintail, 

 recalls the similarly unique one for the shaft-tailed widow bird in the 

 Transvaal. 



The ta\\Tiy-flanked longtail is one of the few bu-ds used by both 

 parasitic widow bu'ds and cuckoos {Chrysococcyx caprius ^^ and Chry- 

 sococcyx klaas^^), but, except for the present record, it has not been 

 reported as a victun of, and is probably infrequently parasitized by, 

 the pintail. 



Tawny -capped grass warbler: Cisticola fulvicapilla (Vieillot) 87 



One record refers to the race C. f. ryficapilla. Neuby-Varty (in 

 litt.) found a nest of this grass warbler on his farm "Torre" near 

 Marandellas, Southern Rhodesia, on March 5, 1951. The nest con- 

 tamed three small white eggs but none of the grass warbler. Measur- 

 ing 16 by 12, 16.25 by 12, and 16 by 12.25 mm., these eggs must have 

 been laid by the pintail, the only parasitic widow bu*d occurring there. 

 The parasite could have removed the eggs of the host as it laid its 

 own in the nest. 



This record is of an unusual host and suggests that occasionally 

 two parasitic weavers, the pmtail and the cuckoo finch overlap in 

 their choice of victims. 



Spot-backed weaver: Ploceus cucullatus nigriceps (Layard) ^^ 



In southern Tanganyika, Grote (1925, pp. 34-35) hu'ed native boys 

 to bring him young weaverbirds out of arboreal nests. Among a 



" MotaciUa subflava Qmelin, Caroll a Llnn6 . . . systems naturae, cd. 13, vol. 1, 1789, p. 982 (ad 

 fluvium Senegal). 



8» Cuculus caprius Boddaert, Table des planches eliminfez d'liistorie uatiirelle, 17!)3, p. 40, No. 657 (Cape 

 of Good Hope). 



8« Cuculus khias Stephens, m Shaw, General zoology . . ., vol. 9, 1815, p. 128 (Platte River, ex Levaillant). 



8' Sylvia fulvicapilla Vieillot, Nouveau dietionnaire d'histoire naturelle, vol. 11, 1817, p. 217 (Camdeboo, 

 ex Levaillant). 



'* Hiiphantornis nigriceps Layard, Birds of South Africa, ed. 1, 1867, p. 180 (Kuruman). 



