212 Ml. J. II. Gurncy's List of a CoUectio7i of Bii'ds 



the corn-fields. The males have the long tail and black plumage 

 only during the breeding-months. These birds build amongst 

 the grass in the open country ; they lay from two to four eggs. 

 The nest is curiously built : they select a convenient tuft of 

 grass, and interlace the blades as they stand, without breaking 

 them off; so that the nest is green during the whole time of in- 

 cubation, and is very beautiful when thus seen. 



91. Vidua erythrorhyncha. Swains. Red-billed Widow- 

 bird. 



Male. Bill red; legs black. Feed entirely on grass seeds. 

 These pretty birds have the long feathers in the tail during the 

 summer months only, losing them in the winter. The female is 

 brown, and never has the long feathers. I have never seen more 

 than two or three of these birds together. The male of this 

 species has a curious habit of hovering over his mate when she 

 is feeding on the ground, bobbing up and down as you see the 

 Mayflies and Midges do on a summer's evening in England. 

 This exercise he generally continues for some minutes without 

 resting. 



[In the case of this and of the preceding species, I have used 

 Mr. Swainson's specific names, as there seems to me to be some 

 uncertainty with reference to the earlier synonyms. — J. H. G.] 



92. Ploceus spilonotus, Vig. Spotted-backed Weaver-bird. 

 These birds are gregarious; numbers build their nests on the 



same tree, generally an Acacia. I have seen as many as fifty or 

 sixty nests on one tree, generally high, and frequently over pools 

 of water ; they hang their nests to the very outermost twigs, with 

 their apertures downwards. The nests are made of strips of the 

 leaf of the Palm-tree or Banana, which the birds tear off, and 

 which resemble grass when woven in the nest; occasionally a 

 small quantity of grass is mixed with the Palm-fibre. The best 

 way to take these nests is to chop the tree down, or a limb 

 from it. The eggs vary very much in colour ; we scarcely find 

 two nests with the same coloured eggs ; green, blue, white, and 

 speckled white and brown are the general colours. Each nest 

 is always suspended by a single twig, unless two or three 

 twigs arc very close together. The extent of the black colouring 



