244 



not in any quantity till Payne and Wallace's consignment of 1908, 

 and unfortunately according to present indications there appears 

 very little probability of any consignment coming to hand this 

 spring. Habitat : Central and Northern Australia. 



Hviarv Birfts 3 have met in tbeir Ittatural state 



By Douglas Dewak, F.Z.S., I.C.S. 



{Continued from page 217). 



V. THICK-BILLED BIRDS. 



The other thick-billed birds which demand our notice are 

 the Weaver Birds and the Munias. These may, perhaps, be 

 called quasi-finches. For all practical purposes they are finches. 



The ploceince or Weaver Birds comprise a large family 

 found in Africa, and South-East Asia. But their headquarters- 

 are Africa rather than Asia. 



In India but five species have been described, and it is an 

 open question whether Ploceus baya and P. megarhynchus are not 

 varieties of the same species. Ploceus baya is the common. 

 Weaver Bird of India, being found all over the plains, except 

 ill Bengal and Assam, where it is replaced by the eastern variety. 

 I cannot do better than repeat Eha's inimitable description 

 of the baya. I quite from " The Common Birds of Bombay," a 

 brilliantly-written little volume, which every ornithologist should 

 make a point of reading. Ploceics baya "is a commonplace little 

 bird, about the size of a Sparrow and marked very like a Sparrow. 

 It easily passes for a Sparrow and does not care, but on a near 

 view the two are easily distinguished, for a Sparrow is grey and 

 brown, whereas the prevailing tone of a Weaver Bird is yellow. 

 Its underparts are all of a dull yellow tint, and the feathers of 

 the back and wings are bordered with brownish yellow. Its very 

 bill is yellow. As the hot season advances the male gets itself a 

 wedding suit, in which, I confess, it is rather a dandy. The 

 crown of its head and its breast then become bright yellow and 

 its face becomes black. But it resumes its humble workaday 

 costume at the end of the rains. 



Weaver Birds are more than sociable. They not only feed 

 together in large numbers (chiefly on the seeds of tall grasses, 



