388 HYPHANTURGUS OCULARIUS 



a neck upwards of eight feet long. Another nest of this species 

 in the same collection is entirely woven from black horse-hair, 

 and is a most finished specimen of bird architecture. These 

 "Weavers devote several months to the construction of their 

 nests, and frequently abandon a partly constructed one to 

 commence another close by. Sometimes a new nest will be 

 suspended from the old one of the preceding year. As a rule 

 Smith's Weaver-bird builds a solitary nest, occasionally wot 

 pairs will build on the same tree, and on one occasion I found 

 a pair of these birds nesting in the midst of a colony of the 

 Spotted Weaver-bird. 



" The eggs are two or three in number, white, rather 

 closely spotted with pale red. They measure 0'72 x 0"54." 



I do not find the species recorded from the country 

 between the Limpopo and Zambesi Rivers. From the latter 

 locality Capt. Boyd Alexander writes : " Not common. 

 Observed singly or in pairs. It commences to build about 

 the middle of November, and the vicinity of water is always 

 chosen. Attempts at concealing the nest are sometimes made 

 by interweaving fragments of the surrounding leaf into the 

 network of fibre." 



In Western Africa the species has been procured by 

 Anchieta at Hurabe, Capangombe, Quissange and Pungo- 

 Andongo, and according to his notes it is known to the natives 

 of BengLiela as the " Janja." It has been obtained by Mechow 

 at Malange in Angola and by Falkenstein and Petit in Loango. 

 Bohndorff met with it at Kasongo on the Tanganyika side of 

 the Congo. 



In Nyasaland it is apparently plentiful, having been pro- 

 cured by Mr. Whyte at Zomba, Mlosa and Tshiromo, by 

 Gen. Manning in Angoniland, and by Mr. J. McClounie at 

 Kikomba, Liwonde and Likangula, who records its native 

 name as being " Lichete." 



