PARASITIC WEAVERBIRDS 133 



Cordon bleu: Estrilda angolensis (Linnaeus) ^* 



A. Roberts (1939, pp. 109-110) found a nest of the cordon bleu 

 between Etoscha Pan and Ondonga, South-West Africa, May 26. It 

 contained one egg of the host and one of a long-tailed widow bird. 

 The shafttail was the only longtail observed in the area. The 

 identification of the egg is therefore somewhat probable. 



Violet-eared waxbill: Granatina granatina (Linnaeus) '^ 



The most frequentl}^ recorded host, the violet-eared waxbill was 

 first mentioned in this connection by Aldersparre (1922, p. 10) without 

 supporting evidence, and then by Mors (1925, pp. 299-300), who 

 reported finding eggs and young of the shafttail in nests of this wax- 

 bill in the Transvaal, and also noted that the young of the two grew 

 up together in apparent amity. A. Roberts (1930, p. 64; 1935, p. 181) 

 obtained further evidence bearing out what Mors wrote. At Hamans- 

 kraal, near Pretoria, F. O. Noome obtained a fledged young shafttail 

 in a group of young violet-eared waxbills, an observation duplicated 

 by Roberts at Kuke Pan in the Kalahari. Hoesch (1934, p. 338) 

 related that in South- West Africa he noted young long-tailed widow 

 birds, probably shafttails, in groups of violet-eared waxbills, but this 

 report is not wholly certain. In a later paper, Hoesch and Niethammer 

 (1940, pp. 360, 361-363) stated that although numerous nests of the 

 waxbill were examined they failed to find any evidence of parasitism 

 by the shafttail. A. Roberts (1939, pp. 109-110) recorded that in 

 the collections of the Transvaal Museum are two parasitized clutches 

 of eggs of the violet-eared waxbill, both collected at Quickborn, 

 Okahandja, South-West Africa — one with three eggs of the host 

 and one of the shafttail taken on March 6, the other with five eggs 

 of the host and one of the parasite taken on April 27. Gill (1945, 

 p. 32) commented that in the Kalahari, Roberts found that the violet- 

 eared waxbill was frequently parasitized by the shafttail and that the 

 young of the two are almost exactly ahke. 



Nestling Stage 



The only data that we have is the statement by Mors (1925, pp. 229- 

 300) that the young shafttails and the young violet-eared waxbills, 

 in whose nests he found them, grew up together without any recorded 

 mutual difficulties. R. Neunzig (1929b, p. 7), quoting Mors, wrote 

 that the nestlings of the two species closely resemble each other in 

 plumage and in the corn-flower blue papillae at the corners of the 

 mouth. 



^ Fringilla angolensis Linnaeus, Systema naturae, ed. 10, vol. 1, 1758, p. 182 (Angola). 



'• Fringilla granatiTia Linnaeus, Systema naturae, ed. 12, vol. 1, 1766, p. 319 (Brazil =» Angola, ex Schitcr). 



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