THE FINCHES AND WEAVER BIBDS OP THE SUDAN 175 



the wing feathers ; underparts buff, shaded with yellowish on the cheeks and throat. 

 Heuglin found this Weaver feeding on grain crops at Berber, and on the Blue and 

 White Niles. Rothschild and Wollaston found it common at Shendi, and Emin got it 

 at Wadelai, but on the intervening portion of the White Nile the common Masked 

 Weaver appears to be H. tienioplerus. 



75. Hyphantornis tienioptenif, Reichenb. (Reichenbach's Masked Weaver). 

 (Plate XIII.). Length, 5-4 inches ; wing, 2-7. Male : front half of forehead, front halt 

 of face, chin, and throat black ; back of head, sides of neck, and underparts bright 

 yellow, shading into chestnut on the front of the head, and all round the black " mask." 

 Back nearly uniform greenish-yellow, with the rump brightest. Wings blackish, 

 margined with pale yellow. Tail olive, washed with yellowish. Female : crown and 

 tail olive ; back ashy-brown, the upper part of it with broad black centres to the 

 feathers, the rump plain. Wings brown, edged on outer feathers with greenish, and 

 on the inner feathers with yellowish- white, k faint pale eyebrow ; sides of face 

 brown ; lower f)arts whitish, more or less strongly tinged with brown. 



Reichenbach's Weaver ranges through the country bordering the White Nile 

 from Khartoum to the Uganda frontier. It appears to be the most abundant Weaver 

 in the country, and it congregates in flocks which must, literally, often number millions. 

 Few travellers on the White Nile can have failed to notice the immense flights of 

 these birds, which look at a distance like great drifting clouds of smoke, and which Dang.-rto 

 pass overhead with a roar of innumerable wings like the rush of a hurricane. This "°Pf '°™ . 



i ^ Hyphantornis 



species and Quelca eethiopica are the most destructive birds on the White Nile, i,cniopterui 

 and as cultivation extends along that river their ravages are likely to become very and y""/"' 

 serious. The woven grass nests of this Weaver are suspended in papyrus, reeds, or 

 trees. The eggs exhibit a most remarkable amount of variation. I have them uniform 

 brown, uniform olive-green, pale green speckled with olive, whitish freckled with red, 

 densely freckled with red throughout, etc., — in fact all my clutches might be taken for 

 eggs of different species. My specimens of the bird are from Khartoum, Kodok, 

 Taufikia, Kenisa, Shambe, and Kojali. 

 Genus : X.aiithophilus 



76. Xanthophihis galbida, Rupp. (Ruppell's Golden Weaver). Length, 5 inches ; 

 wing, 2-8. Male : forehead, fore part of face, and chin chestnut, shading into bright 

 golden-yellow on remainder of head and entire under surface. Back olive-yellow, with 

 faint dusky centres to the feathers ; rump plain yellow. Wings blackish, with yellow 

 margins. Tail yellowish-olive. Female : above ashy-brown, with dark centres to the 

 feathers of back ; head tinged with olive ; rump plain olive. Wings plain brown, 

 margined with pale yellow and whitish. Beneath brownish-white, tinged with yellow 

 on the throat and chest. 



This is another extremely abundant and destructive species, ranging over the 

 Upper Blue Nile districts and the Eastern Sudan to the Red Sea coast. It appears 

 to extend only a short distance up the White Nile. My specimens are from the 

 Dinder, Gedaref, Erkowit, Suakin, and Port Sudan. On the country between Gallabat 

 and Gedaref I have seen it in vast flights, like locusts for multitude. Near the 

 Blue Nile I once passed a breeding-place w-here the bushes for half a mile along a 

 path, and for a hundred yards each side of it, were literally laden with their nests. 

 There must, at the lowest computation, have been hundreds of thousands of them. 

 In smaller numbers it is always to be noticed breeding, in the summer, in the gardens 

 at Gedaref and Suakin, and in the ravines all over the Erkowit plateau and the 



