80 Messrs. A. Haagner ami R. H. Ivy on the 



habits like most of the Weavers. It often affects the open 

 bush-veldt, sometimes nesting a considerable distance from 

 water, although more frequently choosing a tree in the 

 vicinity of water for a nesting-site. The nest is often of a 

 tough red fibre. The eggs — three in number — are white, 

 sometimes blotched with brownish pink and sometimes with 

 purplish grey. We took a nest containing three fresh eggs, 

 which was suspended from a branch of an old oak tree, on 

 5.1.07. The eggs were blotched and spotted, chiefly on the 

 obtuse end, with pale purplish brown and dark brownish 

 pink. 



14. SiTAGRA CAPENSis (Linn.). Cape Weaver Bird. 



The range of this bird is given as AVestern Cape Colony in 

 the check-list, but a specimen from Albany was forwarded to 

 Capt. Shelley, who named it " Xanthophilus capensis" 

 whereas according to the geographical-race theory it should 

 be S. c. olivacea, the outside western range of the typical 

 species being given as " Algoa Bay." It is highly probable 

 that both species inhabit Albany and that here they " come 

 together^' — or separate, whichever is the more correct way 

 of expressing it. 



Common. Fond of suspending their nests over water, 

 hanging them to reeds or the pendent branches of the (Jape 

 willow. This bird is especially fond of feeding on the pollen 

 of various flowers. 



15. Sycobrotus gregalis (Licht.). Black-backed 

 Weaver. 



[S. bicolor, Stark, Birds S. A. vol. i. p. 72.] 



Fairly common in wooded localities. We think the old 

 name of " bicolor " by which it was known far more appro- 

 priate than the present title. It is not at all gregarious in 

 habits, living in pairs, and suspending its compact retort- 

 shaped nests, built of coarse materials — chiefly tendrils of 

 various creepers, — from a high branch overhanging a stream 

 in a wooded kloof. On 6th January, 1907, we, however, 

 found one situated only about four feet from the ground, 

 which is certainly an exception, as only two days previously 



