PLOCEPASSEK PROPIXQUATUS 331 



owners welcoming a passer by witli loud choruses of mellow, 

 musical chirps, which became long and boisterous on an 

 important advent, such as a string of carriers passing by. 

 These woods nre very silent, few birds seem to care to haunt 

 them, and but for these Weavers the monotonous silence would 

 scarcely ever be broken. Tbe same tree is resorted to year 

 after year, and the old nests used as roosting places when the 

 breeding season is over, and these undergo constant repairing. 

 The nest, built in pendant branches about 15 to 20 feet from 

 the ground, are composed of fine dried grass like dry hay, and 

 generally lined with Guinea-fowl feathers, in construction 

 resembling those of our House-Sparrow, and are also about 

 the same size, the entrances of all the nests in one colony 

 always facing one way, in an outward direction. They are, 

 as a rule, untidy looking structures, no attempt at trimming 

 being made, and remind one forcibly of hedgerows in England, 

 past which haycarts have journeyed and left bunches of hay 

 on tbe branches. In flight this bird looks much like some 

 large Wheatear, its white rump being vei*y conspicuous. Dur- 

 ing the breeding season the male sings rather prettily, 

 melodious whistles being introduced into the usual string of 

 musical chirps." 



Di\ P. Rendall has procured the species at Monkey Bay 

 on Nyasa Lake, and, as above mentioned, there are many 

 specimens in the British Museum from other parts of Nyasa- 

 land. It has also been recorded from Undis (FiiUeborn) and 

 from the River Rufiji (Stuhlniauu), in about 8" S. lat., which 

 IS the most northern range known to me for the species. 



PJocepasser propinquatus. 



" Ploeepasser propinquatus, Oust." Shelley, Ibis, 1837, p. 6 Somali; 



Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 217 ; Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 471 (1896) ; 



Eeichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 14 (1904). 

 Ti/2}e. Very similar to P. melanorhi/iichus, but diffenng in the bill being 

 pale brownish, the sides of the head paler, with black sides to the white 



