196 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



txee was so thorny that I could not reach the neet. 

 The males in the breeding season are a most beautiful 

 sight, dozens of them collecting together on a small 

 patch of green dluina. They have a pretty habit of 

 rising and hovering with a jerky fUi,'ht over the sea 

 of glossy green dhurra blades, » itix their feathers puffed 

 out until they look like balls of scarlet and black 

 velvet, this action being accompanied wdth a loud ' purr- 

 TT-purr-rr' of tlie wings. They nearly always puff 

 themselves out in this manner when approaching a 

 female." . 



I purchased my first pair of this lovely bird about 

 the year 1885, before I possessed any large aviaries. I 

 kept them in a cage about 18in. in all dimensions. The 

 cock bird seeme<i dull and listless from the first, and 

 even when in full breeding plumage he took no trouble 

 to chase the hen after the manner of Weavers. 

 Eventually the heai eet U> work to build a nest, a task 

 which is geaierally considered to be the duty of the 

 cock; she worked" away diligently at it all day, and 

 slept inside it .at night. At la.st, when the work was 

 well-nigh completed, both she and her mate died on 

 the same day, apparently from a flight attack of pneu- 

 monia. I purchased a second pair of Orange Weavers 

 (in 1888 or 1889) , the cock being then out of colour ; 

 these birds amused themselves with playing with bits of 

 hay, twisting them in the wires of the aviarj- or round 

 the Epiay millet sticking in the M-irework here and 

 there, but never systematically went to work to 

 build a nest. The cock bird, in the breeding season, 

 first sings to the hen, and then chases her vigorously 

 about the aviary ; his position when singing, though 

 very effective for the cLisplay pof his fiery colours, is 

 somewhat absurd ; he sits vei-y upright, the neck 

 elongated with .all its feathers expanded almo.st like a 

 ruff, which gives it a puffed-out appearance. The song 

 is peculiar, a junible of clear and harsh notes, ajid then 

 " hurrish-rish " — a sound quite metallic as he utters it, 

 and capable r>f exact imitation if you rapidlj- draw and 

 close a muelin blind, running with brass rings on a 

 brass rod. 



In the autumns of 1894 and 1895 I purchased a good 

 majiy Weaver.s out of colour, among which were eight 

 males of this species, one of which built several globu- 

 lar nests in a small bush in 1895, but no eggs were 

 ladd. On December 8th, 1899, I found one egg of this 

 species on the earth in an .aviary where I had one male 

 with three females; it is a blue egg about the size of 

 a Siskin's, but the colour of a Hedge-Accentor's. In 

 the winter of 1907-8 I left these four birds out in my 

 larger garden aviary, where they roosted outside under 

 the open wire netting during the severest frosts, two 

 of the hens died early in the winter, but the cock, 

 which was in full colour, seemed none the worse. 



That Orange Weavers are long-lived will be evident 

 from the f.act that up (o 1898 I had only lost my first 

 male ; others died — three males in 1899 all in colour, 

 one in 1900 in colour, one in 1901 beginning to come 

 into colour, and one in 1902 in colour. Of females 

 which I have preserved I only have three, which died 

 in 1895, ]898, and 1901. 



Ri-.D-iiiLi.ED Weaver [Qnclca qiiclea). 

 The Ked-billed Weaver is generally distributed over 

 Africa. The typical form, when in breeding plumage, 

 is very prett.v. tlie forehead, front of face and chin, 

 being occupied by a black mask, which includes the 

 eye ; the rest of the head, throat, and breast bright 

 rose colour, shading into brown on the bark and 

 whiti.sh on the belly, the feathers of the back are 

 dark brown with paler borders, and the wings and 



tail are brown ; the beak is lake-red, and the legs are 

 flesh coloured. The female is, as usual, brown, with 

 darker shaftstreaks to the feathers, the flights and 

 tail feathers brown edged with yellow ; cheeks and 

 under parts buflish, centre of body below white ; be.ak 

 waxy ochre yellow. Uab., Africa, south of the Senegal 

 Kivcr, the Albert Nyanza, and Lake JSyassa. 



Stark says ("Birds of South Africa," Vol. I., p. 

 123) : — " Hut little has been recorded regarding the habits 

 of this Weaver in a wild state." Ayres remarks that it 

 is " tolerably common in Potchefstroom and the neigh- 

 bourhood in summer, associating freely with the fiigUts 

 of Pyi-omdana oryx which swarms here. It feeds with 

 tlieni in the open grassy plains and cornfields, prin- 

 cipally on small grass-seeds which they pick from the 

 ground." 



Of this species I have had a good many pairs, and 

 the cock birds are always at work, during the breed- 

 ing season, building their cleverly constructed ball- 

 shaped nests, and in the winter pulling them to piece.s. 

 When building they will let no other Weaver approach 

 them, but will raise their wings almost over their 

 heads, and use shocking language at the intruders. 

 But when weary of this work, they rest on a branch 

 at a short distance, and any bird may meddle with the 

 nest with impunity, unless it so happens that the work- 

 ing fit comes on again whilst some meddlesome fellow is 

 trying to discover how it is put together, when 

 there is sure to be a sharge, a cliase, and much chatter- 

 ing, but nothing worse. 



Considering how incessantly these birds build in an 

 aviary, it is surprising bow unsatisfactory the result of 

 all the labour is. I have only once got as far as eggs, 

 and these were not hatched. From successful experi- 

 ments made in Germany, it appears that the clutch 

 of bluegreen eggs varies from three to seven, aaid incu- 

 bation lasts fourteen days. 



The variety named after Dr. Russ is a degenerate 

 form of the sjH'cies, in which the black face-nuark is 

 replaced by huff. At its change of colour in 1896 one 

 of my male Red-bills appeared without the black mask, 

 assuming the dress of Russ's Weaver. The bird w.os 

 probably getting old and weak, for it died after its 

 change in the following year. In 1904 another of my 

 males, which I had possessed for a good many years, 

 as-Miined an intermediate plumage, in which the black 

 all disappeared with the exception of a broad crescent 

 over the b.ack of the ear-coverts ; in 1905 this also 

 vanished, and it became a typical Russ's Weaver ; 

 this bird, however, continued to live until the end of 

 Ai>ril, 1908, when it became ill .and w,as killed V).v 

 another <ock-bird. I therefore regard the incapacity 

 to deposit black pigment, in this species as an evidence 

 of a feeble condition of health ; some individuals seem 

 to be born thus. 



Captain Shelley also told me that he had always 

 doubted the distinctiK'.ss of the two birds, as he had 

 on several occasions shot both from the .same flock. In 

 his work on the Birds of Africa he sinks it as a 

 synonym of Qiiclea qvclea; but in his key to the .species, 

 descril>os it as a variety; it is actually nothing .so 

 permanent as a variety, being merely an albinistic 

 phase. 



Red-hkaded Weaver {Qudea erythrop.,). 



The male differs from the preceding species in having 

 the he.ak blackish ; the entire head and upinr half o' 

 throat crimson, becoming nearlv black on the chin and 

 centre of throat ; lower mandible of beak pale ; feet 

 reddish brown ; irides brown. Female differs from 

 that sex of Q. qurJra by iti? beak being dark brown, 

 with paler lower mandible. Hab., Island of .St. 

 Thom.as, " and ranges from Senegal to the Quanza 



