FRINGILLlDiE. 181 



purple, or heavily blotched with the same. I have taken eggs with 

 green and cream-coloured grounds out of the same nest: axis, 11'"; 

 diam., 1'". 



Mrs. Barber writes from " The Highlands," near Graham's Town t 

 " I send herewith the nest of a kind of finch (a yellow bird, with a black 

 head). They are common, and most likely you know both the bird 

 and its nest, though I do not suppose that you know the material that 

 the nest is made of; for in our youthful, bird-nesting days it puzzled 

 us amazingly, until at length we found out the secret, and then I do 

 assure you we were very proud of it, and gave ourselves much credit 

 for finding out what no one had been able to tell us, which was, that the 

 nest of this bird was made of the fibres of the leaves of a species of 

 Sanseviera, a plant belonging to the natural order Asphodelece ; but as 

 our Flora has not yet been published up to that order, I cannot give 

 you its specific name with any degree of certainty. It is not the tall 

 aloe, like one that grows in our forests ; but the dwarf, thick-leaved, 

 stemless Sanseviera, with the red edges to its leaves. The whole leaf is 

 fult of strong fibres, but from its tough nature the birds are only 

 enabled to strip oflT the two marginal threads ; and to construct one of 

 these nests many thousands of Sanseviera leaves are deprived of their 

 red-edged fibres ; and in the neighbourhood of one or two of these 

 nests you will not find a perfect leaf on any of these plants. 



360. Hyphantornis Spilonotus, Vigors ; Proc. 



Zool. Soc, 1830, p. 92 ; Ploceus Flaviceps, Swain., 

 Nat. Lib., Vol. 12, p. 259, PI. 32 ; Ploceus Stidonotus, 

 A. Smith, S. Af. Q. Journal, No. 5, p. 11 ; Id., Zool. S. 

 Af., PI. Q6, Fig. 1. 

 General colour of head, breast, belly, vent, and rump, 

 bright gamboge-yellow ; back liver-brown, and yellowish- 

 green variegated ; sides of head, chin, and front of throat, 

 black ; wing-feathers, brown, edged with yellow ; tail, 

 greenish-brown ; bill black ; feet flesh-colour. Length, 7" ; 

 wing, 3" 6'" ; tail, 2" 7'". 



Dr. A. Smith describes this species as inhabiting the districts upon 

 the south-east coast, but not found to the westward of Kafirland ; fre- 

 quenting rivers, and suspending their kidney-shaped nests of woven 

 grass over the water. I have received the species from Kuruman. 

 Eggs, according to Dr. Smith, blue; but Mr. Ayers (Ibis., Vol., 1860, 

 p. 212,) says they vary much in colour, being green, blue, white, and 

 speckled white and brown. 



361. Hyphantornis Subaureus. (Smith.) Zooi., 



S. A., Pi., 30 ; F. 1 ; Ploceus Tahatali, Smith, Appen- 

 dix to Report of Exped., p. 50, apud Gray. 



Front, crown, sides of the head, and throat, bright sajBPron- 

 yellow ; nape, back and sides of neck, back and shoulders, 

 between sulphur and gamboge-yellow ; vent, light chrome- 



