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Mr. L. M. Seth-Smith,



operations, sometimes giving a hand at the weaving, but she

never, I think, deigns to fetcli the grass. At times, when a

builder has gone off to fetch more grass a neighbour will make a

dart at the nest, seize a piece of grass and carry it off for his own

use. But they live very happily on the whole, and are always

welcome, preferring to remain near human habitations. The

Black Weaver Bird ( Melanopterys nigerrima) frequently occupies

the same tree as its commoner relative (//. abyssinicus).


On April io, 1905 ,1 found at Entebbe a nest of the Paradise

Flycatcher ( Terpsiphone cristata). It was placed about 25 feet

from the ground on an almost bare, small branch. The nest was

very small and cup-shaped, not unlike a Chaffinch’s, the outside

being composed of lichen and moss, woven together with spiders’

webs, the inside being lined with fibre about the thickness of

horse hair. It contained two partially-incubated eggs, which

were large for the size of the nest, and I should think this

number, or possibly three, probably represents the full clutch-


We get several British birds in the migrating season, but

my notes of these are very meagre.


On the 29th of February, 1908, I saw a lot of our English

Swallows ( Hirundo rustica ), among them being some immature

birds with dull brown crowns and the throat only just beginning

to get a tinge of rufous, and without the long tail-feathers. While

on the subject of Swallows, I should like to mention a nest I

found at Nimule on the 19th of February, 1906, of that beautiful

large Brown Swallow ( Hirundo senegalensis). It was placed under

an overhanging ledge attached to a river sand-bank, and was

composed of mud outside and lined first with goats’ hair, above

which was a soft lining of feathers. Unlike our Swallow’s nests,

it was bottle-shaped, with the neck pointing outwards and curved

downwards, not unlike a Weaver-bird’s nest, but made of mud

instead of grass. There were two fully-fledged young in the

nest.


Cuckoos also appear in their season, but I cannot say

whether their note is the well-known call which is so popular in

England, although I have been told by a good observer that he

had heard on one occasion a number of Cuckoos calling with a

note exactly similar to that of Cuculus canorus ; other Cuckoos



