The Nesting of Hartlaub's Weaver. I2y 



each Ceriopsis, Egyptian, and Canadian Geese, the last named 

 \vith three gosHngs; also i pair each Wigeon, Mallard, 

 Mandarin, Pintail, and Formosa Ducks. 



All my disasters have not yet been told : I got a Vet. 

 in from Belfast to pinion the four Storks and same number of 

 Egrets, with the result that three of the Storks and one Egret 

 died as the result of the operation — the Vet, did not tie up the 

 arteries properly, and when they flapped their wings the blood 

 burst out — he was dreadfully sorry and upset about it and offered 

 at once to replace them, but, of course, I could not allow him 

 to do this. With great difficulty I managed to save one Stork 

 and three Egrets, which arc now all in beautiful pulmage. 



The Nesting of Hartlaub's Weaver. 



{Xantliups hartlaubi). 

 By W. Shore Baily, F.Z.S. 

 This is one of the yellow-headed Hyphantornine weavers, 

 and comes from Angola. This spring Mr. Chapman had a 

 consignment of birds from this part of Africa, and amongst 

 them were a number of these birds, together with some smaller 

 Weavers that I have not yet identitied. I secured two or three 

 pairs of each species and have now had them two or three 

 months in my aviaries. Although very many nests have been 

 built, only one pair has actually gone to nest up to the time of 

 writing. The nest was of the usual type and was suspended 

 over the water. About the middle of May three eggs were 

 laid, rather long ovals and pale unspotted blue. These proved 

 to be infertile, so 1 removed them, substituting a clutch of 

 Goldfinch's eggs. These duly hatched out, but I am unable to 

 say how long they lived, as at this time I went for my holiday. 

 On my return after a month I found that the hen was again 

 incubating. Two days later one young bird was hatched; the 

 other two eggs were clear. The young squab was flesh-coloured 

 and bare of down. It was fed by the hen only. As the nest 

 was in a large aviary with other birds, it was impossible to 

 supply live food, so the hen had to depend on seed and bread 

 and milk, besides what Hxe insects she could catch, and this 

 cMet evidently proved insufficient, as on examining the nest 

 after ten days I found the young one dead, evidently from 

 insufficient nourishment. As far as I could judge from its 



