120 BIRD ARCHITECTS 



pouch with a domed opening at the side near the top, and 

 is usually constructed of strips torn from the leaves of the 

 reeds. It lays three or four eggs of a beautiful deep greenish- 

 blue colour and rather pyriform in shape. To see several 

 hundred of these birds flitting about the reeds on a bright 

 sunlit day is a glorious sight, the habit they have of fluffing 

 out the feathers giving a brilliance and intensity of colour 

 to the vivid red and glossy black, of which the prepared 

 skin exhibits but little trace. 



Its smaller congener, the Golden Bishop (P. taha), is not 

 nearly so common. In its beautiful golden-yellow and 

 glossy black plumage it looks like a ball of gold as it flits 

 over the marshy, weed-covered patches in which it delights 

 to make its home, fluffing up its feathers and emitting its 

 grating, chirp-like call. It builds a similar nest to that of the 

 Eed Bishop, constructing it, however, chiefly of fine grass, and 

 placing it amongst the rank weeds. It lays four to six eggs 

 of a white ground colour spotted with tiny dots of very dark 

 brown. This species is not found in the Cape Province. It is 

 somewhat " local " in distribution, appearing in certain locali- 

 ties in fair numbers one season and being almost unknown 

 there the next. It is fairly common in the Pretoria District. 



The Cape or Yellow Bishop-Bird (P. capensis) and its 

 two sub-species are larger birds than the Golden Bishop, 

 ;mk1 differ in having the top of the head black instead of 

 this region being yellow, as is the case with the Golden 

 Bishop. The sub-species (P. c. approximans) inhabiting the 

 eastern Cape Province, northwards, is smaller than the 

 western form, while the northern form is intermediate in 

 size between the two, and lias, moreover, black thighs 

 (P. c. xantliomelcuna). 



The males of this genus change their summer plumage 

 by abrasion into a dull brown colour during the winter 



