"254 Mr. T. Ayrc3 on Trans-Vaal Ornithology. 



ber of these varies according to the extent of the colony. The 

 apertures of the chambers face downwards, and are barely large 

 enough to admit a man's hand. 



There is no connexion between the chambers; and each of 

 them is warmly lined with feathers. In February, being again 

 in the district inhabited by these birds, I cut a nest or two down 

 and found the young birds mostly flown. One chamber only 

 contained callow young and a single unhatched egg, greyish 

 white, indistinctly mottled with sepia-brown. There were seve- 

 ral nests on one tree, each three or four feet in diameter. 



108. (L, 357, 359 part., 364 part.) Hyphantornis maui- 

 QUENSis (Smith). Mariqua Weaverbird, 



[Mr. Ayres has recently forwarded from Trans-Vaal several 

 males of this bird in nesting-plumage, which agree with the 

 example figured in 'The Ibis,' 1868, p. 466, pi. 10, where Mr. 

 Ayres's observations on this species are also given. From the 

 measurements recorded by Sir A. Smith, in the ' Illustrations 

 of the Zoology of South Africa,' of the species to which he 

 gave the name of " Fioceus nim'iquensis," it seems clear to me 

 that the bird which he figured at Plate 103 of that work is the 

 winter plumage of the species represented in the figure in ' The 

 Ibis ' above referred to, and not of the closely allied but smaller 

 race, Hyphantornis cahanisi, as suggested by Drs. Finsch and 

 Hartlaub at page 867 of their work on the * Birds of East 

 Africa.' I do not think that this species is really distinct from 

 the slightly larger race found at the Cape Colony, to which Mr. 

 Layard has applied Latham's specific name capitalis. This last 

 name should, 1 think, be extinguished, as Latham's description 

 is so meagre, and his plate so unsatisfactory, that it is im])Os- 

 sible to be certain to which of the nearly allied species of this 

 genus they are intended to apply. — J. 11. G.] 



109. (L. 359 part., 364 part.) Hypiiaxtornis velatus 

 (Vieill.). Damara Weaverbird. 



Sex of specimen uncertain. Total length 5^ inches, bill 

 Yi, wing 2|, tail 2, tarsus Jf ; iris dusky. 



[Mr. Ayres has only forwarded one example of this Weaver- 

 bird fi'om the Trans-Vaal. which is evidently either a female or a 



