WEAVER-BIRD 1029 
with them a promiscuous company far better left as it was by Gray 
and others in a distinct group as Spermestinw, or more correctly 
Estrildine, composite though this group may be and requiring the 
separation of its Australian members, Donacilda and Poophila, known 
as Grass-Finches and certainly not true Viduxw, to say nothing of 
others often included with Lstri/dinx, but apparently not belonging 
to them, as Pyrenestes and Euplectes or Pyromelxna, which seem 
closely to approach Ploceus and Symplectes or Sycobrotus. 
Where so many forms are concerned, only a few of the most im- 
portant can now be mentioned. The type of Cuvier’s genus is’ 
certainly the Loxia philippina of Linnzeus, so termed from the islands 
whence it was received but to which it is not indigenous. But the 
typical Weaver-bird of Latham (not that he had the name in that 
precise form) is the Hyphantornis cucullata or textor of modern writers, 
an African species, and it is to the Ethiopian Region that by far 
the greatest number of these birds belong, while in it they seem to 
attain their maximum of development. They are all small, with, 
generally speaking, a Sparrow-like build ; but in richness of colour- 
ing the males of some are very conspicuous—glowing in crimson, 
scarlet or golden-yellow, set off by jet-black, while the females are 
usually dull in hue. Some species build nests that are not very 
remarkable, except in being almost invariably domed—others (such 
as the Ploceus philippinus just named, or P. baya as some call it) 
fabricate singular structures! of closely and uniformly interwoven 
tendrils or fine roots, that hang from the bough of a tree often over 
water, and, starting with a solidly-wrought rope, open out into a 
globular chamber, and then contract into a perpendicular tube 
several inches in length, through which the birds effect their exit 
and entrance. But the most wonderful nests of all, and indeed the 
most wonderful built by birds, are those of the so-called Sociable 
Grosbeak, Philhetxrus socius, of Africa. They are composed wholly 
of grass, and are joined together to the number of 100 or 200— 
indeed 320 are said to have been found in one of these aggregated 
masses, which usually take the form of a gigantic mushroom,” 
affording a home and nursery to many pairs of the birds which 
have been at the trouble of building it. These nests, however, 
have been so often described and figured by South-African travellers 
that there is no need here to dilate longer on their marvels. It 
may be added that this species of Weaver-bird, known to French 
writers as the Républicain, is of exceptionally dull plumage. 
1 These differ from those built by some of the OrroLEs and other birds, whose 
nests may be compared to pensile pockets, while those of these Weaver-birds can 
best be likened to a stocking hung up by the ‘‘toe,” with the “‘heel” enlarged 
to receive the eggs, while access and exit are obtained through the ‘‘leg.” 
2 But at a distance they may often be mistaken for a native hut, with its 
grass-roof, 
