BREEDING HABITS OF WEAVERBIRDS—FRIEDMANN 295 
unused nests, strewing the debris on the ground under the tree . . .” 
Of the spectacled weaver of South Africa (Ploceus ocularius) Roberts 
(1940, pp. 337-338) records that the nest has a protruding entrance 
tube which is usually from 3 to 6 inches in length, but that in several 
instances the nest-building activities of the birds were so great that 
the entrance tubes became extended to a length of 6 feet! One 
nest in the Albany Museum at Grahamstown, recorded by Stark, 
has an entrance ‘‘upwards of 8 feet long.” It is a well-known occur- 
rence in captivity, such as in zoologicalparks, for different species 
of weavers, when given quantities of raffia or straw, to weave a vast 
quantity of rather formless masses of compact, densely woven mate- 
rial over the branches in the cage and even over the wire mesh of the 
cage itself. The birds do so equally avidly whether they are in 
breeding or in nonbreeding plumage; in other words, the urge to 
build, which in most birds is seasonal and is part of the cyclical 
sequence of behavior patterns, is here extended far beyond its normal 
limits. Furthermore, in at least some of the species of typical weavers 
(many are still very poorly known as far as details of habits are 
concerned), the bulk, if not all, of the actual nest construction is 
done by the males and not by the females. (In most ordinary 
birds the female does most of the nest building.) Thus, in the 
masked weaver (Ploceus velatus mariquensis) Taylor (1946, pp. 
145-155) found that the males did all the nest building, except for 
some of the lining which was put in by the females. When a nest 
is completed the male that built it immediately starts to make another, 
and in one colony a single male wove no fewer than 11 completed nests. 
In another species, the Baya weaver of India (Ploceus philippinus), 
Ali (1931) found that the males were polygamous and that the number 
of mates each was able to get depended on the number of completed 
nests he was able to build for them, the actual courtship and mating 
behavior taking place in or around the newly finished nest. Ali 
writes that in his experience with this species— 
... in the initial stages of an adult nesting colony, no hens are as a rule in evidence, 
and I have been unable to discover their whereabouts during the first few days. 
It would appear that the instinct to breed asserts itself earlier in the adult cocks 
than in the hens, for it is not until the time when the nests have progressed to a 
stage where the egg-chamber is finished or nearly so, that some of the females 
first become physiologically “‘ripe.”” They now visit the colony quite obviously 
with the sole object of “‘prospecting”’ for laying sites, i. e., to discover if there are 
any nests that are ready for their occupation. ... Two hens often fight for the 
possession of an acceptable nest. The successful hen henceforward boldly enters 
the nest and busies herself with finishing off and making the interior comfortable. 
In no case have I been able to observe the cooperation between male and female 
so often described. The lion’s share of the building—in fact all of it—is undoubt- 
edly done by the cock alone. Her contribution is only the “‘interior decoration”’.. . 
The “building mania,’ as it has been called, that comes over the adult cock at 
this season is a sure indication of his readiness to breed... 
866591—50——20 
