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retire to similar places to breed, and I once found a 

 couple of such nests close together in a water-logged 

 grass-patch, which I put down as belonging to these 

 birds. 



I have only found the nests of two of our Bishops 

 so far, namely the Crimson-crowned (^Pyi'omela?ia 

 flammiceps) and the Orange Bishop (iP. franciscand). 

 The former nest in colonies in the long grass of 

 swamps, making domed nests with a short porch-like 

 side opening, attached to the longer grass-stalks, the 

 main stems of which with the living leaves are woven 

 into the nest-wall. The eggs I have never seen, as I 

 have never been able to get near enough to the nests, 

 through their being always situated over standing 

 water or deep mud. 



The latter, the Orange Bishops, nest in larger 

 -colonies than the former, building circular grass- 

 woven nests of rather a flimsy structure, suspended to 

 grass-stalks, or reeds in the swamps as a general rule, 

 but they also occasionally trust the dry land sufficiently 

 to build in cornfields, attaching their nests to the stalks 

 of the small '" koos," (a kind of millet which grows to 

 iibout the height of eight feet), but this only occurs in 

 fields far away from the villages, and which are on 

 this account not much visited, or perhaps they more 

 commonh^ select some patch of "koos," coming up a 

 ■second year on some now deserted piece of land, 

 which had been a cornfield in the preceding year. 

 They lay light-l)lue eggs. 



Three of the Yellow Weavers are very common 

 here ; the first is Siiagra hiteola, whose nests in 

 their thousands line the upper reaches of the river 

 and. its creeks. They are more or less retort-shaped 

 structures with a short neck pointing downwards, 

 made of loosely woven grass stems and suspended 

 from the outer ends of thorn-bushes on the river 

 bank,, wherever they overhang the water sufficiently to 



