24 Mr. C. F. M. Swynnerton 07i the 



heaps or even, with subsoil moisture_, on the sides of 

 hills ; they are large for the size of the birds. One in 

 my collection, taken at Gungunyana, measures about 7*5 

 inches in length by 3*5 in diameter, and is a bandsorae 

 inverted oval, domed and coming to rather a point at the 

 top, with the opening, 1*7 deep by TS inches across, about 

 halfway down. It was slung by its front to tw^o thick upright 

 reed-stems, one just on each side of the opening, and was 

 woven throughout with wonderful neatness from a clean and 

 fairly tough whitish bark-fibre, in appearance much like that 

 of our common Triumfetta, which was fairly abundant in the 

 vicinity of the nest. It contained only one egg, pure white, 

 with spots and blotches (somewhat massed at the larger 

 end) of rather deep reddish brown, and measured 22 by 

 15 mm. 



33. CoLioPASsER ARDENs. lled-collarcd Widow-Bird. 

 Singuni : " Isakabuya.'* 



Rh.j P. One of our commonest birds in many parts of 

 Melsetter and the Jihu. In the latter district I found it 

 going about in the grass-jungle in large flocks, all in winter 

 plumage, in August, and feeding especially, like so many 

 others, at the Leonotis-c\\xmT^%. The male in breeding-plumage 

 shares the habit of P. xanthomel(Bna of remaining perched 

 conspicuously on the summit of some isolated Parinarium or 

 other tree in the open grass-veld. In full breeding-plumage 

 my males have varied from 12'25 to 15'75 inches in the 

 flesh. Bill of female and non-breeding male, upper mandible 

 brown with a dusky culmen, lower pale greyish. Of nine 

 stomachs the contents of which I have noted, three contained 

 insects (beetles and a larva) and the remainder seeds only. 



34. Vidua principalis. Pin-tailed Widow-Bird. 

 Chindao : " Chinyampimbiri." 



Rh., P. Found throughout the high veld, and noticed 

 in flocks, entirely in winter plumage, on the Kurumadzi in 

 August ; also, in December, at Chibabava and at one or two 

 points between that place and the coast. The females in 

 my collection varied from 5 to 5*4 inches in the flesh, and a 



