204 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



same aviary, one may have kept another in check. 

 The experience of one aviculturist is never quite con- 

 clusive as a guide on which to base one's faith in the 

 harnilessness of any species. 



In my " Foreign Finches in Captivity " I mention 

 having had five males of this species ; two of these, 

 however, proved to belong to the nearly-related P. 

 mani/ah. I believe I purcha.sed these birds fiom one 

 consignment about 1892, and I got rid of the Manyah 

 Weavers in 1898 ; one Baya Weaver lived a year or two 

 longer. 



Two Weavers have been separated from the above— 

 P. atrigula and P. megaThynchus — but Mr. Finn ob- 

 serves (The Ainc.ultural Magazine, 1st ser. , Vol. VI., 

 p. 146). "No doubt there is a certain amount of inter- 

 gradation between them, similar t« that which occurs 

 between P. atrigula and P. haya." in which case they 

 must be wKxt are nowadays called subspecies. I will 

 tlierefore merely quote Mr. Finn's characters for dis- 

 tinguishing them. 



Black-throated Weaver {Ploceus atrigula). 



Larger than P. haya ; " throat dull blackish ; breast 

 buif." Hab. , Lower Himalayas to Assam, and from 

 the neighbourhood of Calcutta through Burma and the 

 Malayan Peninsula to Sumatra and Java (Sharpe). 



I believe the Zoological Societv of London acquired 

 four examples of this form in 1900. 



Great-bllled Weaver {Ploceus megarhynchus). 



" Size largest ; entire under-surface yellow " {F. 

 Finn). Hab.. Terai (Hume). 



The Zoological Society of London acquired a speci- 

 men of this bird in 1901. 



Bengal Weaver {Ploceus bengalensis). 



The male is " similar to P. baya, but differing in the 

 total absence of yellow on the breast, and by the black 

 band across the chest ; 1 he throat sooty bUickish " 

 (.Sharpe); "bill jwarly white; legs flesh-colour; iris 

 light brown " (Oatei). Male in winter witTi " a more 

 tawny-bufi tinge below, the black breast-band entirely 

 obscured bv sandy buff edges to the feathers ; " upper 

 mandible dusky brown, the lower one pale lavender; 

 feet brownish fleshy pink; iris brown" {A. O. H.). 

 Female " having the black band across the chest less 

 strongly developed, and the yellow of the eyebrow and 

 sides of neck not quite so bright ; " upper mandible 

 light brown, the lower one whitish homy, with a pinky- 

 bluish tinge; feet fleshy pink; iris brown" [A. 0. H.) 

 — Sharpe. Hab., the greater part of India and ranging 

 into Burma. 



Jerdon ("Birds of India," Vol. II., p. 350) observes: 

 — " I found it abundant near Purneah, al,so in Dacca, 

 building in low bushes, in a grassy churr overflown 

 during the rains. The nest was non-pensile, and had 

 either no tubular entrance or a very short one, made of 

 grass, and more slightly interwoven than either of the 

 others. Tbongh a good m,^ny pairs were breeding in 

 the neighbourhood, the nests ■were, in no instance, close 

 to each other, rarely indeed two on the same bush." 



In Hume's " Nests and F.ggs of Indian Birds," 2nd ed.. 

 Vol. IL, pp. 120, 121. we read: "Mr. Henry Wenden 

 has sent nie the following note: — On 28th "August I 

 found some eight or ten nesls of this bird at Bhandoop, 

 sixteen miles from Bombay, in a ispace of marshy land 

 (water 6 to 18 inches deep), surrounded by rice-fields. 

 'They were built on that kind of grass wliich looks so 

 like young sugar-cane, the bla<les of which were bent 

 down and woven into the nest. In one ca.se a nest was 



supnorted by only four blades, in another by ten or 

 twelve. The tops of the nests were as globular as the 

 entrance of the several blades of grass would permit of 

 their being. None had pensile supports, and I noticed 

 no entrance-tube of more than 2i inches in length. 

 Two nests each contained three eggs, one clutch being 

 fresh and the other well incubated ; another nest had 

 one egg. 



" As regards material and the way it is woven, the 

 nests are similar to those of F. baya; nor can I per- 

 ceive any difference in size, colour, or shape of the 

 eggs, unless it be that those of P. bengalensis are 

 slightly more pointed at the smaller end." This species 

 has been exhibited at the London Zoological Gardens. 



Manyah Weaver {Ploceus manyah). 



Male, "similar to P. baya, but without the yellow 

 on the breast ; the fore neck and breast, as well as the 

 sides of tile body, tawny rufous or yellowLsh buff, these 

 parts all forcibly streaked with b^o.^d, black centre,s to 

 the feathers; the throat sooty blackish, like the sides 

 of face and ear-coverts ; nape and hind neck tawny 

 brown streaked with black like the back." Female, 

 " general colour above ashy brown, broadly streaked 

 with black, the feathers of the mantle and scapulars 

 margined with tawny buff; bastard-wing, primary- 

 coverts, quills and tail-fejithers blackish, margined with 

 olive-yellow ; crown of head like the back, but less dis- 

 tinctly streaked; lores dusky; eyebrow white tinged 

 with yellow, extending in a streak behind the ear- 

 coveits ; sides of face and ear-coverts sooty blackish ; 

 cheeks and under-surface of body white, with a yellow 

 tinge on the breast; the fore neck, breast, sides of 

 body, and flanks distinctly streaked with black, more 

 broadly on Uie lutter ; thighs white, also streaked with 

 black ; under tail-coverts buffy white ; under wing- 

 coverts tawny buff; quills below du.sky, ashy rufous 

 alons the inner edge ; bill brown above, darkening 

 on the culmen towards the tip, pale yellowish flesh- 

 colour below; feet flesh-colour; iris dark brown" 

 (K. A. Butler). .\dult in winter, "resembles the 

 plumage of the adult female, but alw,iys much more 

 tawny, especially on the fore neck and breast, which 

 are both strongly streaked with black centres to the 

 feathers, the throat ashy or blackish, the yellow eye- 

 brow and streak behind the ear-covert« and the cheek- 

 stripe all well pronounced" (Sharjie). Hab., Ceylon 

 and the greater part of the northern provinces of Indi,a 

 from Sind to Assam and south to Tenasserim ; also 

 Java. 



•lerdon says of this species (" Birds of India," Vol. II., 

 p. 349) : — "It chiefly frequents long grass and reeds on 

 the banks of rivers and ihecls, and was hence named 

 by Buchanan Hamilton Loxia typliina. It invariably 

 breeds among high reedis, and usually in places liable to 

 be inundated ; and, as the breeding season is during 

 the rains, the nest is thus unassailable except from the 

 water. The nest is fixed to two or three reeds, not far 

 from their summit, and the upper leaves are occasion- 

 all.y turned down and used in the con-struction of the 

 nest, which is. in all cases th.at I have .seen, made out of 

 grass only. The nest is non-pensile — that is to say, it 

 is fixed directly to the reeds, without the upper pensile 

 support that the nest of (P. baya) has; and, in some 

 cases, the eggs are laid before any tubular entrance is 

 made, a hole .at the side near the top forming the 

 entrance. This, however, is often, but not always, 

 completed during the incubation of the female; and, in 

 other cases, a short tubidar entrance is made at first, 

 in a very few, prolonged to a foot or more. I have 

 found the eggs in this case, as in the last, to be 



