BREEDING HABITS OF WEAVERBIRDS—FRIEDMANN 309 
territory about 400 yards in diameter, considerably larger than that of 
the first male, but more open, less bushy, and probably contained 
possibilities of no greater number of nests to parasitize than the other. 
The third and last male had a smaller breeding area and was usually 
accompanied by three or four brownish henlike birds. I shot one of 
these birds and found it to be a male—a year-old bird in first nuptial 
plumage. 
The courtship displayed was first observed at Woodbush, Transvaal, 
on December 1. The male flew up from the ground and hovered about 
2 feet in the air directly over a female, with his body feathers shghtly 
ruffled and his wings beating rapidly. With each wing beat the four 
long rectrices were violently jerked and made to stream boisterously 
over the female, much after the cascade type of tail display of Coli- 
uspasser ardens and Coliuspasser procne. 
On another occasion, in equatorial East Africa, I saw a male display 
to a female that was perched in a thorn tree. The display was similar 
to the one already described; the male danced in a stationary posi- 
tion as though suspended in midair a couple of feet above the female. 
On still other occasions I watched males courting when there were 
several of the brownish hen-feathered birds present. In all such 
cases I noticed definitely that the male tended to confine his atten- 
tions to one particular bird. It seemed as though there was but one 
female and that the other brown birds were year-old males. In one 
case I shot the whole band (five brown birds) and found that one was a 
female in breeding condition and the rest were young males. 
Inasmuch as this widow bird is parasitic in its breeding habits it 
is interesting to compare it with the cowbirds (Méolothrus) of the 
Americas. The chief difference seems to be in their sexual relations. 
Both are more or less monogamous but the Vidua tends toward 
polygamy while the Molothrus tends toward polyandry. 
The vocal efforts of this species are not remarkable. The usual 
call notes are weak, high, but sharp tsips, something like the weaker 
notes of the redpoll (Acanthis linaria). When a band of birds calls 
simultaneously and rapidly they produce a light twittering chorus. 
The song is a rapid but modulated repetition of the call note and 
usually consists of from 5 to 10 syllables and occasionally more. 
It is given in flight as well as when at rest. Curiously enough, I 
never heard a male sing while going through his display dance before 
a female. 
As is well known, this species is parasitic in its breeding habits; 
i. e., it lays its eggs in the nests of other birds and leaves them to their 
care. Vidua macroura is not the only ploceid exhibiting this habit— 
V. regia and V. paradisea and, as we have already noted, Anoma- 
lospiza imberbis are also parasitic, and probably the other species 
of Vidua will in time be found to be parasitic as well. Vidua 
