Whydahs 185 



are situated in the swamps, as is the case with most of those 

 made by Whydahs. 



The best way it seems to me of utiHsing" the available 

 material will be to take the list (that of all the species at present 

 known) in the British Musetmi Hand List and under each species 

 to give the information most likely to be useful aviculturally, 

 and not to waste time and paper in copying' out descriptions of 

 plumage and accounts of habits, except in so far as they " suit 

 my book". 



Now that so many Whydahs have joined, or look like 

 joining, the ranks of those which have bred in conlinement, 

 descriptions of their nests and eggs are well worth collecting 

 into one place, so that these will form the chief part of what I 

 shall find to say about the different species, and to this will be 

 added references to the literature dealing with these birds, where 

 all that is known about them may be found by seekers after more 

 information. In these references 1 shall try to give as many as 

 possible to coloured plates, as these are so helpful in identifying 

 any birds one has never seen before. Where I know of plates, 

 the books containing them will head the lists of references. 

 Another matter which with foreign birds is always a source of 

 trouble and confusion is Nomenclature, for. as time goes on. 

 names (both popular and scientific), change like the fashions, so 

 that what is one bird's name to-day ma} to-morrow have been 

 shifted to another, or one name be shared by two or more birds, 

 although I do not know that this occurs often among the 

 Whydahs; but the opposite is of course a widely spread evil, — 

 that is one bird being burdened (or honoured, if preferred) by 

 a multitude of appellations. As a guide through this maze of 

 names I am heading each account with two lists of the principal 

 names which have been applied to the species under considera- 

 tion. The first will contain the English names (other than that 

 which heads the article), the quite obsolete ones being disting- 

 uished by an asterisk (*) and the others arranged more or less 

 in their order of merit as suitable names. The second will deal 

 with the scientific names; this comes straight out of the British 

 Museum Catalogue (vol. xiii.), from the synonymies of which I 

 have tried to skim the cream, supplementing it where necessary 

 from more recent sources, that is the other authorities I quote. 



