48 Mr. G. L. Bitten— Field -Notes on the 



eating group of Weavers, and not to be placed naturally so 

 near to Melanopteryx nigerrimus as it is in the ' Vogel 

 Afrikas/ Nos. 1854 and 1855 were evidently a pair, shot 

 together, as so man}' of my specimens of Malimbus have 

 been. No. 2626, the young one, was in company with a 

 Malimbus rubricollis in an ejak in the forest. 



Amblyospiza saturata. [K6-Es6ug.] 



Sharpe, Ibis, 1908, p. 353. 



This bird I have found only in the Ja district, and there 

 only in localities where there are extensive patches of the 

 big cane-like grass Panicum maocimum, or " esong " in 

 Bulu. The Bulu name of this bird is the name of the grass 

 combined with '' km," meaning " parrot.^' The name 

 *' parrot" must be given on account of the big bill of these 

 Weavers, or because, when perched, they hold themselves in 

 a peculiar parrot-like erect position, made necessary, ap- 

 parently, by the weight of their bills. Once, while watching 

 one of these birds thus perched, I saw it open its mouth and 

 heard it sing a pretty little canary-like song, consisting 

 of some "cheeps" ending in a trill. 



Though the bird is not very plentiful here, a number of 

 its nests have been found and shown to me, mostly by one 

 man, who seems to have discovered a place where they 

 nest, though they do not, I think, build together in a close 

 colony. The nests are large globes, six inches or more in 

 diameter, attached by one or both sides to stems of the 

 (^song grass or to other plant-stems. They are always woven 

 entirely of fine shreds resembling flax both in fibre and in 

 colour. From what plant the bird gets them I do not know, 

 perhaps from the inner stems of the esong also, which the 

 bird could bruise and fray out with its strong bill and then 

 tear off in fine shreds. The weaving is closer and neater 

 than that of most Weavers. In some of the nests the en- 

 trance is a mere hole in the side of the globe, and the edges 

 of the hole have a finished look, all ends being tucked in, 

 and a " selvedge edge " formed. Seeing such a nest one 

 would suppose that it was finished, and that this bird builds 

 no vestibule as other Weavers do. But other nests have a 



