461 XANTHOPHILUS CAPENSIS 



watched these birds building theii' nests, which they often 

 begin in June or July. A commencement is made by the 

 bird twisting long strands of grass round the end of some 

 pendent twig, and making a loop of this grass about six inches 

 in diameter, fastened again to the same twig ; this is the 

 foundation of the nest. The bird stands in this ring every 

 time he returns to the nest with fresh material, and works 

 from this position, pushing one end of the strand of grass 

 through the ring, and then putting himself into all sorts of 

 attitudes to enable him to catch hold of it from the other side, 

 when he pulls it through, after the manner of sewing with a 

 needle and cotton. The foundation for both portions of the 

 nest are done in much the same way, several long ends of 

 grass being left out at each side of the ring, and then fastened 

 into the ring again, thus making loops which act as support 

 for the bulb at either side of the nest ; other strands are then 

 woven on to this framework. The bird seems to bring a nest 

 into a fair semblance of itself in about a couple of days, but 

 after that it worked at it for a long time, patching it up and 

 strengthening it. The male birds constructed the whole of the 

 nests during the time that I watched them, and made a great 

 fuss over the operation, bestowing praise loudly and unceas- 

 ingly upon themselves as they hurried to and from the nests, 

 of which there would often be ten or twenty iu the same tree. 

 These, when first woven, ai"e green, but their colour soon 

 changes after they have been hanging for a few days. When 

 the nests are beginning to assume finished proportions, the 

 birds go inside and do some work from the interior, or hang 

 in a horizontal position from the opening of the nests and 

 critically examine their work, holding their heads back the 

 while, in much the same way as an artist would retire from a 

 picture he was painting, to enable him to view it to better 

 purpose. The female birds were placed in rather an awkward 



