IVEA VER-BIRD 1029 



with them a promiscuous company far better left as it was by Gray 

 and others in a distinct group as Spermestinm, or more correctly 

 Estrildinx, composite though this group may be and requiring the 

 separation of its Australian members, Donacilda and Poophila, known 

 as Grass-Finches and certainly not true Viduse, to say nothing of 

 others often included with Estrildinx, but apparently not belonging 

 to them, as Pyrenestes and Eupledes or Pyromelmna, which seem 

 closely to approach Ploceus and Sympledes or Sycobrotus. 



Where so many forms are concerned, only a few of the most im- 

 portant can now be mentioned. The type of Cuvier's genus is 

 certainly the Loxia philippina of Linnseus, so termed from the islands 

 whence it was received but to which it is not indigenous. But the 

 typical Weaver-bird of Latham (not that he had the name in that 

 precise form) is the Hyphantoirnis cucuUata or textor of modern writers, 

 an African species, and it is to the Ethiopian Region that by far 

 the greatest number of these birds belong, while in it they seem to 

 attain their maximum of development. They are all small, with, 

 generally speaking, a Sparrow-like build ; but in richness of colour- 

 ing the males of some are very conspicuous — gloAving in crimson,' 

 scarlet or golden-yellow, set off by jet-black, while the females are 

 usually dull in hue. Some species build nests that are not very 

 remarkable, except in being almost invariably domed — others (such 

 as the Ploceus philippinus just named, or P. baya as some call it) 

 fabricate singular structures ^ of closely and uniformly interwoven 

 tendrils or fine roots, that hang from the bough of a tree often over 

 water, and, starting with a solidly-wrought rope, open out into a 

 globular chamber, and then contract into a perpendicular tube 

 several inches in length, through which the birds efi'ect their exit 

 and entrance. But the most wonderful nests of all, and indeed the 

 most wonderful built by birds, are those of the so-called Sociable 

 Grosbeak, Philhetserus socius, of Africa. They are composed wholly 

 of grass, and are joined together to the number of 100 or 200 — 

 indeed 320 are said to have been found in one of these aggregated 

 masses, which usually take the form of a gigantic mushroom,^ 

 affording a home and nursery to many pairs of the birds which 

 have been at the trouble of building it. These nests, ' however, 

 have been so often described and figured by South- African travellers 

 that there is no need here to dilate longer on their marvels. It 

 may be added that this si^ecies of Weaver-bird, known to French 

 writers as the Pdpublicain, is of exceptionally dull plumage. 



^ These differ from those built b}^ some of the Orioles and other birds, whose 

 nests may be compared to pensile pockets, while those of these Weaver-birds can 

 best be likened to a stocking hung up by the "toe," with the "heel" enlarged 

 to receive the eggs, while access and exit are obtained through the "leg." 



^ But at a distance they may often be mistaken for a native hut, with its 

 grass-roof. 



