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imported aiiinially as cage-birds, a life to which they 

 take with extraordinary readiness ; the smaller ones, 

 Waxbills, Firefinches and Cordon - bleus, do not here 

 strike one as particularly noticeable, as their small 

 size and with most of them their rather skulking 

 habits, render them inconspicuous except at a very 

 short distance, but the larger (popularly known as 

 Weavers, Bishops and Whydahs) when in full breeding 

 plumage are among the most striking of all tropical 

 birds ; a flock of male full-coloured Bishops, either the 

 scarlet and black crimson-crowned or the yellow and 

 black Napoleons, is indeed a lovely sight, as they flit 

 among the tall grass-stems, at the bases of which their 

 woven nests are built, almost always in places where 

 the ground is under water, or at any rate so soft and 

 marshy that approach is impossible. Others are the 

 Paradise Whydah flaunting their long tails as they 

 fly, the rarer Yellow-backed Whydah, and finally the 

 Black- faced Yellow Weavers which are certainly the 

 commonest of all the seed-eating birds to be seen 

 along the river. 



During the heat of the day, however, these birds 

 and nearly ever}^ living thing are dozing in the stag- 

 nant atmosphere, and it is only in the mornings and 

 afternoons, from about four o'clock to dusk, that the 

 bush is thoroughly awake. Some of its inhabitants 

 we may certainly disturb at all hours ; for instance, 

 the two common Kingfishers, one a pied black and 

 white bird, which hovers over the water like a Kestrel 

 until it sights or thinks it sights a fish, when it closes 

 its wings and falls like a stone into the water, throwing 

 up a small fountain of spray, and then if successful 

 emerging with a fish, which it carries off to a handy 



