26o 



make raids from monkej^s and other animals im- 

 possible. The egg-chainber is separated from the 

 entrance by a sort of grass-woven perch and is lined 

 with fine grass with a sparse admixture of small 

 feathers. The eggs are white. 



Hyphantornis vielanocephalus\ix&Q.6.':r> in mimosas and 

 other thorn-trees ; the nests are retort-shaped with a 

 short neck and are hung from the outermost branches, 

 not more than one or two on each tree, nor necessarily 

 overhanging water as is always the case with the 

 birds just mentioned ; in fact I should say that these 

 birds nearly always select a dry situation. The eggs 

 are pale olive. 



The Rufous-necked Weaver ( H. niadlatus) the 

 largest of our Yellow Weavers, nests in large colonies 

 in cocanut palms, round the tops of which at the bases 

 of the leaves they build a mass consisting of numbers 

 of their spherical nests of grass, during the build- 

 ing of which and while the young are inside, the 

 assembled multitudes of mothers and fathers keep up 

 an extraordinary continual chatter. As I have never 

 yet climbed a palm-tree (and am never likely to) I 

 cannot describe the nests more definitely and know 

 nothing of their eggs. 



The last of the Weavers I have to deal with is the 

 large black Buffalo- Weaver {Textor seiiegalensis), a 

 very common bird in places here, but liardl}^ known as 

 a cage-bird ; in fact, I rather doubt if it would live in 

 captivity at all, as its natural food consists almost 

 entirely of insects. They make very large nests of 

 small sticks, twigs, and grass plaited together, and 

 placed in large trees (commonl}' those with thorny 

 trunks) in or just outside villages, where custom and 

 the position they select — at least twenty feet from the 

 ground — protects them from interference by man, and 

 at the same time minimises danger to the eggs or 



