202 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



I purchajsed several of these birds out of colour in 

 1895, one of which assumed a full male plumage in 1896, 

 and a second in 1898 ; the remainder were evidently 

 hens. The species has been bred in Germany, and 

 oould, I am certain, be easily bred here if a male and 

 two or three females were kept apart in a small aviary, 

 for they are as crazy to build and as quarrelsome when 

 building as the Red-billed Weaver— a bundle of hay will 

 set them to work at once. The nest is like a huge enail- 

 shell with the opening directed downwards. I have at 

 times had the wire netting at the top of my Weaver 

 aviary adorned with eeveral of these clever structures, 

 and never could understand how the birds could manage 

 to weave the top of the nest on to the wire ; probably 

 after the end is passed through it is doubled down and 

 held by the claws until the beak has seized it again. 

 The sitting consists of from three to five eggs, and 

 incubation lasts fourteen days. 



The German price for the bird is tolerably high, and 

 possibly, when in full colour, it may not be cheap in 

 England ; but I bought mine at the same rate as 

 Napoleon and Orange Weavers, all out of colour. 



Halt-masked Weaver (Hyphantornis vilellinui). 



The male bird in breeding plumage is bright golden- 

 jellow, somewhat olivaceous and with dusky streaks 

 on the back ; wing-feathers, black edged with yellow • 

 tail feathers, pale brown, with yellow edges ; crown of 

 head, chestnut to the middle; a black mask including 

 the lores, eye, front of ear coverts and sides 'of face as 

 well as the chin and front of throat ; remainder of 

 throat washed with orange; beak black; feet 

 brtxwnish flesh -coloured ; iris, according to Von 

 Heuglin pale brown, according to Dr. Russ fiery red. 



The female above is pale yellowish olive-brown ; the 

 mantle and shoulders with broad brown shaft streaks, 

 the abdomen and vent nearly pure white ; the remainder 

 of the body more or less yellow, but duller and paler 

 than in the male ; beak dark-horn brown, under mandible 

 paler, feet flesh-brown ; iris orange. 



The male in winter plumage is a good deal like the 

 female, but larger, with a richer yellower tone on the 

 under parts and the back greener with narrower shaft- 

 streaks ; the head and throat, at any rate in fully adult 

 birds, more or less mottled with" black and yellow 

 Hab.. from 18 deg. N. lat. southward to the Ulu High- 

 lands, 2 deg. S. lat. (Shelley.) 



Captain Shelley publislies the following field-notes 

 ("Birds of Africa," Vol. IV., Part II., p. 444) :_"The 

 Drs. Reichenow and Luhder found these Weavers breed- 

 ing both at Accra and at Abokobi, with fre.ih eggs in 

 the middle of Augu.'^t. The nests were hung from bushes 

 at five to eight feet fronv the ground, one or more being 

 suspended from the same bough, but were not in large 

 colonies. The nests were of the usual oval form, with 

 the entrance-tube hanging down. The eggs, bluish 

 ■white with pale reddish blue or violet markings 

 measure 0.8 by 0.6." 



" In North-east Africa Heuglin met with there birds 

 insmall flocks from May to ,Iulv, at Berbera and up the 

 White and Blue Nilps. Their favourite resjorts were 

 small groups of acacia and other thorny trees in damp 

 situations, on islands, and in the maize-fields. They 

 were feeding on grain and insects, and their call note 

 was a ehr.ll chirp. The males moult into their bright 

 breeding plumage in ,Iune. The nest is woven out of 

 fresh, green grass, and suspended from a twig at a 

 height from the ground varying from three to twenty 

 feet ; many of these nest« were empty, and apparently 

 ■used only as shelters for the males. The eggs varv 



greatly in colouring, from whitLsh to clay-colour or 

 bluish-green, some having only dusky bluish-grey dots 

 and freckles, while others are thickly ijpotted with red- 

 dish brown. He never found more than five eggs in a 

 nest, and in their second brood there were generally 

 only three. . . . When the young are able to Hy they 

 assemble in flocks in the ofjen country and maize-fields, 

 and wander southward in November." 



Dr. Russ observes that this is rightly the most 

 beloved of the foregoing large Weavers, since it is not 

 only harmless and peaceable in the bird-room, and one 

 of the most beautiful of all Weavers, but also is easily 

 and plentifully bred, and constructs an extraordinarily 

 artistic nest. This is somewhat fulsome praise, for the 

 bird is just about as quarrelsome as other members of 

 its genus, and its nest is of much the same type. 

 Neither is it. in my opinion, far superior in point of 

 beauty, the distribution of colours being very similar. 

 Some allowance must, however, be made for the fact 

 that the worthy doitor bred the species freely in his 

 bird-room. The clutch of eggs nuinb<'rs three to four, 

 lighter or darker bluish-white, spotted with reddish or 

 violet. Inculjation lasts twelve days. The song is 

 extremely han>h, but the bird is immensely proud of it. 

 Owing, perhaps, to the fact that many of the London 

 dealers do not recognise this bird (especially in its 

 winter dress), it is generally obtainable for a few 

 shillings. In Germany it appears to cost from twelve 

 to fifteen shillings for a pair. It is imported from time 

 to time in a few heads amongst consignments of mixed 

 Weavers. 



Black-fronted We.aver {Ht/phantomis velatuf:). 



General colour above olive-yellow, the back indis- 

 tinctly streaked with brown ; the scapulars streaked 

 with black ; wings brown ; median coverts tipped and 

 the flights edged with yellow ; tail olive-brown, with 

 yellow edges to the feathers ; crown and sides of neck 

 yellow ; forehead, sides of head and throat black ; 

 remainder of under-surface yellow ; axUlaries white 

 with a tinge of yellow ; under wing-coverts grey ; edge 

 of wing yellow ; flights below dusky, with yellow inner 

 edges ; beak black ; feet flesh-colour ; irides orange- 

 red. Male in winter above greyish-brown streaked 

 with dark brown ; rump and upper tail-coverts olive- 

 yellow ; lesser wing-coverts olive-yellow, brown at 

 base; remainder of the wing-feathers brown with 

 yellow or oUve margins ; median coverts with pale 

 yellow tips ; tail olive-brown, with a wash of yellow ; 

 crown and nape tinged with olive-yellow ; sides of head 

 olive-brown with a yellowish tinge ; a faint yellowish 

 eyebrow ; lores dusky ; cheeks and throat yellowish- 

 white ; breast. side5, and flanks pale yellowish-brown ; 

 centre of abdomen white ; under tail-coverts sandy- 

 yellowish ; axillaries and under wing-coverts pale 

 yellow ; edge of wing brighter yellow ; beak dark 

 brown ; feet dark flesh-colour ; irides pale brown. 

 Female differs from the winter plumage of the male in 

 the greyish-brown colour of the lower back, rump, 

 and upper tail coverts. Hab., South-West Africa from 

 Benguela to Cape Colony. 



Captain Shelley separates this from H. mariquensU, 

 but admits that it is "an extremely nearly allied form." 

 Stark treats it merely as a local form of the species 

 which ranges from Cape Ck>lony over Southern and 

 J^stern South Africa, south of the Linipoixi River. Of 

 the babite of the latter he writes (" Birds of South 

 Africa," Vol. T.. pp. 59, 60). — "These Weaver birds are 

 gregarious at all seasons of the year, and in summer 

 frequently form very large breeding colonies, often con- 

 sisting of several hundred pairs of birds. Frequently 

 they commence building their kidney-shaped neets very 



