THE WEAVER BIRDS 1539 



with the neck cut short and the aperture downward; while across the entrance runs a 

 kind of bar to prevent the eggs from falling out. This nest is lined with the soft 

 flowering heads of grass, which furnish a warm bed for the young. The eggs are of 

 a beautiful, spotless green color. Mr. Layard says that these weavers become very 

 tame in confinement, and will readily answer to the call. If they are supplied with 

 cotton or thread, they will weave it most industriously into the bars of the cage, 

 forming a dense mass which it is impossible to unravel. This work they perform 

 entirely with their bills, clinging the while to the sides of the cage with their 

 powerful claws. They have a loud churring cry. The adult has the crown of the 

 head and the sides of the neck gamboge yellow; the nape, back, and rump are lemon 

 yellow; the back of the neck and shoulders greenish yellow; the wing feathers a 

 dark purplish brown edged with yellow; the tail olive brown tinted with yellow; 

 while the throat and lower parts are saffron yellow. 



With this exclusively African genus ( Vidua) of long-tailed and 



r ^J^ e strikingly-colored birds we come to the second subfamily, the distinc- 



Birds ti ye characteristics of which have been already indicated. The paradise 



whydah birds, of which there are several species, may be taken to in- 

 clude all those in which the two central pairs of tail feathers of the males are greatly 

 elongated, although they are frequently subdivided into distinct genera, according 

 as to whether some or all of these feathers are attenuated and wire-like. The long- 

 tailed whydah bird ( Vidua paradisea ) , represented in the upper part of our colored 

 plate, is an inhabitant of South Africa, where it frequents swampy ground and the 

 long reeds about ponds. Its flight is feeble. In the breeding season especially, 

 when the male has assumed his nuptial livery and long tail feathers, the flight is so 

 labored that the children constantly run them down. They are quite unable to fly 

 against the wind, and in rainy weather can hardly be got to move out of the thick 

 bushes in which they conceal themselves. The Kaffir children stretch bird-limed 

 lines across the fields of millet and Kaffir corn, and take great numbers of the males 

 by their tails becoming entangled in the lines. This bird builds its nest in long 

 grass close to the ground, generally placing it in a tussock of herbage, to the blades 

 and stalks of which it is roughly joined. The nest itself is rather a rough structure, 

 composed of fine grass lined with the seed ends; the opening is at the side. Mr. 

 Bowker states that the average number of females is as fifteen to one male. He 

 adds that the long tail worn by the male in the breeding season is not an inconven- 

 ience, and the bird never seems to enjoy himself so much as during a high wind in 

 which he shows off to advantage, spreading his tail out like a fan. The male in 

 nuptial plumage is of a general glossy back; the feathers of the shoulders are 

 fulvous and brilliant crimson, and the tail is enormously developed. The female 

 plumage is of a pale yellowish brown, but the wing feathers are black with pale 

 yellowishbrown edges. 



Nearly the whole of the remaining genera of the subfamily have 



the tail shorter than the wing; and among these some of the most 

 remarkable are the gorgeously-colored bishop birds of Africa, a group of which is 

 depicted in the right lower half of our colored illustration. These birds have the 

 tail squared, with the two central feathers not markedly produced beyond the rest; 



