160 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 223 



much so that in his 9th year (when the note was written) he was 

 unable to fly up the side of the cage, but worked his way up the wire 

 netting much as a parrot does. He took longer to attain full plumage 

 than in earlier years. 



Disposition: A. G. Butler (1899, p. 274) found that captive adult 

 paradise widow birds are usually peacefid in contrast uath the pin- 

 tailed widow birds, and are even timid at times. On one occasion 

 however, a male became aggressive and entered the nests of some 

 zebra finches breeding in the same cage, and killed the young. In 

 Sierra Leone, Thompson (1925, p. 50) considered the paradise widow 

 bird pugnacious as he saw it driving away other small birds. Unfortu- 

 nately, this statement has no supporting details indicating from what 

 the paradise widow bird was repelling other birds. 



Many years ago Teschemaker (1907, p. 27) mentioned a hen 

 paradise widow bird in his aviary sitting for sometime on a nest. 

 It is not clear, however, whether there was anything in the nest, or 

 if the bird was using an old partial nest structure as a temporary 

 roost. Teschemaker was unaware of the fact that this bird is para- 

 sitic, and presumed it was nesting. 



