HYPHANTORNIS T^ENIOPTEUUS 411 



with eggs on the banks of the Makara, a tributary of the 

 Moloppo River, where their neatly constructed nests were 

 hanging on the bushes fringing the stream." 



T. E. Buckley saw a tree by the side of the Limpopo 

 literally covered with their pendulous nests, in November. Mr. 

 Gruy Marshall found the species " fairly common round Salis- 

 bury, nesting among the granite kopjes at some distance from 

 water." 



Mr. Boyd Alexander during his expedition up the Zambesi 

 found these birds breeding in considerable numbers at Zumbo, 

 towards the end of December, and remarked that the females 

 assume for the breeding season a bright yellow breast like the 

 throat, and writes : " During our stay at Zumbo we had a good 

 opportunity of observing the breeding habits of this Weaver. 

 The males were continually at work building the nests, while 

 the females were hardly ever seen near them, but were always 

 abroad, each bird being in the company of another, so much so 

 that they impressed us as being male and female till we pro- 

 cured specimens." 



The most northern known range for this species in East 

 Africa is Nyasaland, where it is apparently abundant, having 

 been procured at Katunga, Mpimbi, Zomba and on the 

 Dedza highlands in South Angoniland. 



Hyphantornis taeniopterus. 



Ploceus tseaiopteras, Eeichenb. Singv. p. 78, pi. 36, figs. 281, 282 (1863) ; 



Eeichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 82 (1901). 

 Hyphantornis taeniopterus, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 4G7 (1890) ; Shelley, 



B. Afr. I. No. 544 (1896). 



Male in breeding plumage. Front half of the forehead, front half of face, 

 the chin and throat black ; crown and hinder half of face deep chestnut 

 in front, fading gradually into golden yellow on the nape and sides of neck ; 

 back of neck and the back nearly uniform greenish tinted yellow, with the 

 rump bright golden yellow ; tail dusky olive, with narrow yellow edges 



