312 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1949 
nests themselves, such as adding to or rearranging the lining. Thus, 
the bronze mannikin, Lonchura cucullatus, sometimes builds its own 
nest, but often breeds in old nests of other weavers, particularly of 
species of Ploceus. At Kaimosi, in western Kenya Colony, I found a 
rather untidy, loosely constructed nest of dried grasses and plant 
fibers, lined with grass seed-heads and feathers; it contained four white 
eggs and was evidently the nest of a pair of these mannikins, which 
were constantly seen on or about it. On the other hand, a day later I 
saw a Lonchura enter an old Ploceus nest, and, wondering what the 
bird might be doing there, I cut down the nest and found in it two 
eggs exactly like those found in the other nest the day before. The 
bird acted in a very excited manner as I examined the nest. Jackson 
(p. 1473) also records that this species breeds in old nests of Ploceus 
reichenowi, which it lines with grasses. Other Estrildinae known to 
use old nests of other species not infrequently are the silverbill, 
Lonchura cantans, the cut-throat finch, Amadina fasciata, the red- 
headed finch, Amadina erythrocephala, the common waxbill, Estrilda 
astrild, the zebra waxbill, Estrilda subflava, the lavender waxbill, 
Estrilda perreini, and the cordon-bleu, Uraeginthus bengalus. 
Aside from the fact that nest building in many of the Estrildinae 
is not so fixed in its pattern but that the birds may either build new 
nests for themselves or make use of old nests of other species (often 
very different in design from those their own species would construct), 
it is worth noting that in a good number of species the males take part 
in the task of incubating the eggs. Thus, in writing of the zebra 
waxbill, Jackson (p. 1517) goes so far as to say that “. . . as is gen- 
erally the case with Waxbills, the males assist in incubation.” Infor- 
mation on the courtship habits and sexual relations of the Estrildinae 
is still rather scanty, at least as far as significant and reliably 
worked-out details are concerned, but what data there are indicate 
nothing unusual in either respect. The birds appear to be monog- 
amous, and, as is so frequently the case with species in which the 
sexes look alike, the courtship antics do not show any peculiar or 
marked developments. 
In review, then, the great family of weaverbirds exhibits an aston- 
ishing range of diversity and variety in the mode of expression of the 
different parts of the reproductive behavior cycle. In the beginning 
of the breeding time we find everything from marked fragmentation 
of wintering flocks into pairs, to year-round gregariousness, and in 
courtship from a pattern that comes prior to nest building to one that 
follows the completion of the nests by the males, from solitary antics 
to elaborate display on special dancing grounds, and, on the other 
hand, to almost none at all, or, as in the case of the house sparrow, 
to barren but promiscuous displaying by mated males, seemingly 
