42 COLIUSPASSER ARDENS 
occur the following notes: “This is a bird of the eastern 
portion of South Africa; Mr. Rickard has found them at East 
London, and we fell in with them at Alice and on the Blink- 
water. Captain Trevelyan says that it is common near King- 
williamstown. Mr. T. C. Atmore sent several specimens from 
Eland’s Post, where it was common”? and, ‘‘ Captain Harford’s 
informs us that in Natal they fly in flocks, five or six- males 
with about fifty females. This we also observed when we fell 
in with them in the swampy grass-lands and fields of Kaffir- 
corn at Alice. The females usually hid themselves in the sea 
of herbage, diving to the bottom in a moment, while the males, 
after occasionally doing battle with each other, or hovering 
with the peculiar jerking, flapping motion common to this 
genus, over some of the females concealed in the grass, would 
betake themselves to some elevated head of corn or rush, and 
thence survey the field.” 
According to Stark, in winter they assemble in flocks and 
mix with other Weaver-birds. ‘‘The nests are domed, with 
a small entrance at the side; carefully woven of fine grass in 
the centre of a thick tuft of grass, many of the grass-stems 
being built into the walls of the nest, while others are plaited 
so as to form an arched bower over it.” In Northern Natal, 
Major Clarke found them in small flocks frequenting the 
reeds which grow along the banks of rivers. 
The habits of all the members of this genus are very much 
alike. The type of the species and the type of Vidua torquata 
were red-collared specimens from South Africa, from whence 
also came the types of Vidua lenocinia and Penthetria auricollis, 
which had yellow collars. This variation in the colour of the 
collar is probably due to the constitution of the individual 
bird, and similar changes from red to yellow on certain parts 
of the plumage are by no means confined to this species or 
genus, 
