426 HYPHANTORNIS CTJCULLATUS 



(Laglaise). Near BatLurst Dr. P. Rendall found the species 

 breeding in colonies, and Mr. Budgett calls it very common 

 there during the rainy season. Fea records it as abundant on 

 the Island of Bulama, and Mr. Kemp writes from Sierra 

 Leone : " I met with these Weavers in April, May, June, 

 August and September, at Bo, where they do great damage on 

 the rice-farms. They commence building in August and con- 

 tinue building or patching up their nests throughout September 

 and into October. The nesting colonies are invariably in the 

 vicinity of towns, villages, or noisy places like a railway 

 station. There are many hundreds of their nests, constructed 

 out of the fibres stripped from banana leaves, built in the large 

 trees at Bo, and although the birds are generally here in num- 

 bers, the bulk of them often go away for several consecutive 

 days. They fly usually in parties of 20 to 50 from the large 

 trees to some neighbouring rice clearing." 



In Liberia Dr. Biittikofer found the present species and 

 Clnnamopterijx castaneofusea to be the commonest of the 

 Weavers, both frequenting the larger trees to breed in colonies. 

 In the village of Robertsport he saw a combined company of 

 these two species breeding in one tree, with their nests inter- 

 mixed. They kept up a continuous, deafening chatter while 

 constructing their nest, which took about a day to build. 

 Often, as soon as one bird has brought some material and 

 departed for more, a neighbour tears it away to use it for 

 its own nest, which generally resulted in a free fight. These 

 birds would also build in the less frequented parts of the 

 forest, generally selecting the trees in which Gijpoliierax 

 angolensis was breeding, for he remarked that, in the Cape 

 Mount district, he rarely met with the eyrie of the Eagle with- 

 out its being surrounded by a colony of nests of these noisy 

 Weavers. 



Ou the Gold Coast the species is equally abundant, and 



