PARASITIC WEAVERBIRDS 141 



be apparent from the following account. Here is another oppor- 

 tunity for resident naturalists to help clarify a very difficult situation. 



Distribution 



The paradise widow bird occurs throughout the greater part of 

 Africa south of the Sahara, except for the heavily forested areas and 

 the area extending south of Damaraland, Bechuanaland, the Trans- 

 vaal, and Natal. It has been recorded from Senegal (Diourbcl, Dakar, 

 St. Louis), Gambia (Bathurst), Casamance, Sierra Leone (Bendugu, 

 Kamaron) , Ivory Coast (Bandama), Upper Volta (Wagadugu), French 

 Sudan (Beledugu, Ansongo, Fiko, north to latitude 16° N.), Ghana 

 (Tumu, Northern Territory), Togoland, Nigeria, Cameroons, French 

 Equatorial Africa, Sudan, (Darfur to Sennar), Ethiopia (north to north- 

 ern Ethiopia, up to 7,000 feet elevation, Bogosland, Eritrea), and British 

 Somaliland, south through the Belgian Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Italian 

 Somaliland, Tanganyika, Mozambique, Angola, the Rhodesias, Nyasa- 

 land, and Bechuanaland (Lake Ngami), to Damaraland (Ombujoma- 

 temba, Erongo Plateau, Omaloko), Transvaal (Rustenberg), extreme 

 northeastern Cape Province (Kimberley), Natal (Zululand), Port Natal 

 and extreme eastern Cape Province (King William's Town). It is 

 not found in the Orange Free State or most of Cape Province, and 

 has not yet been recorded in Liberia, where it probably occurs. 



Throughout its range it is a bird of fairly dry types of country, the 

 thorny bushveldt, and the more open savannas, but not grasslands 

 devoid of trees or shrubs. It has been recorded from about sea level 

 to as much as 7,000 feet elevation, but appears to be most numerous 

 below elevations of 5,000 feet. 



In the literature, I came across frequent statements that the species 

 is locally present for only part of the year and that suggest, if not regular 

 migration, a good deal of seasonal movement. Probably some of these 

 statements arose because the paradise widow birds go unobserved or 

 at least unidentified from other "off season" weavers when not in 

 breeding plumage. I cannot, however, rule out the possibility that the 

 breeding range may not be wholly coincidental with the total recorded 

 range of the species. Thus, in Gambia, Hokinson {in Bannerman, 

 1949, p. 394) noted that the paradise widow birds increased in numbers 

 in the rainy season. Priest (1936, p. 368) failed to find a male in non- 

 breeding plumage or any females after June in the Salisbury-Marandel- 

 las area of Southern Rhodesia, and suggested that the paradise widow 

 bird might be migratory to some extent. In northeastern Africa 

 Heuglin (1869, pp. 584-585) doubted that it was resident through the 

 year, as he saw none except from May to December. I cannot find 

 any real evidence by which to limit the breeding range as diffprent 

 from the total geographic distribution of the species. 



