42 Mr. G. L. Bates — Field-Nutes on the 



The Bulu name of all species of MaUmbus means "Weaver 

 of the vine-palms/'' from the favourite nesting-place of many 

 of them. 



1329. Ploceus bicolor. 



Reich. V. A. iii. p. 34. 



Sycobrotus bicolor Sharpe, Ibis, 1908, p. 349. 



A common inhabitant of the smaller sort of second-growth 

 forest that springs up on land once cleared and then left for 

 a few years — a sort of forest found very extensively in the 

 Ja district. The bird was never seen at Efulen, where the 

 primeval forest prevails. It seeks its insect-food in the tree- 

 tops or the under bushes and brush, in the dry season making 

 a great rattling among the dry leaves of the underbrusli 

 when foraging. Sometimes I have thought, from the 

 beating and rattling noise I heard, that some antelope or pig 

 must be walking about in a thicket, but have found nothing 

 but one of these yellow birds. This species has a little song 

 of a high pitch, ending in a long drawn out "chee-e-e !" 

 which sounds rather sweet. This it is continually singing. 

 A male not breeding has been shot while uttering the 

 little song ; and two female specimens, if my boys, w'ho shot 

 them, may be believed, were also singing when shot. 



Many of my specimens have been shot at their nests. The 

 pair (Nos. 15G2 and 1563) were killed at one shot, one being 

 inside the nest and the other perched at the entrance. The 

 nest is of the ordinary Weaver shape, i. e. a globe with a 

 downward-pointing entrance or vestibule on one side, the 

 latter short, not a long tube as in nests of some kinds of 

 MaUmbus. It is woven of small weed-stems and tendrils, 

 and is rather bulky and rough. Nests of this bird are 

 most frequently found in a kind of small thorny tree 

 called " bougo.^* Probably the thorns or prickles, which 

 thickly cover the twigs or leaf-petioles to which the nests are 

 attached, afford protection against marauders. 



The eggs, when found in the nests, were two in number, 

 and two that I saved measured 20*5 x 14"5 mm. and 

 20 X 14 mm. 



