186 



FOEEIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



WHYDAHS AND WHYDAH=LIKE 

 WEAVERS (Ftduince). 



The Whydahs. 



These birds have a very distinct summer plumage, 

 which the males assume at the approach of the breeding 

 season. In most of the species the upper tail-coverts 

 of the males are at this season developed into enormous 

 graceful plumes which extend far beyond the true tail. 

 The females and the males when in winter plumage 

 are soberly coloured birds which remind one of the 

 European Sedge-Warbler or the Corn-Bunting. The 

 Whydahs are nearly all polygamous ; and, like most 

 polygamous birds, the males do not trouble about 

 building the nest or rearing the young, but leave these 

 duties entirely to the females. The Combasou, which 

 is an exception to this rule, differs also in its method 

 of nidification and in its white eggs ; it is, in fact, in 

 some sense a link between the true Whydahs and the 

 Ornamental Finches ; nevertheless, the Combasou and 

 its local races are linked to the long-tailed species 

 through Vidua kypocherina, a rare little " Black 

 Whvdah," of which Mr. Fulljames exhibited a very 

 perfect specimen at the Crystal Palace in 1898. 



There are one or two habits which are common to all 

 the Whydahs. including the (short-tailed) Combasou. 

 vi/.. when feeding they scratch on the earth or in the 

 seed-pan with a little backward shuffle which sends 

 the sand or seed flying to a distance, and when court- 

 ing they rise up and down in the air above the female 

 like gnats, flapping their wings with regular and noisy 

 beat. 



The nests are domed, hut-like structures, and the 

 eggs, with the exception of the forms of IIyj><-/tn /". 

 are (I believe) always coloured. 



The Whydahs are hardy birds, feeding chiefly upon 

 white millet and canaryseed, and occasionally small 

 insects or their larvae. 



SHORT-TAILED WHYDAHS. 



These are represented by the IIyj-}ii-r/i . two or 

 perhaps three species (or races) of which are sold in- 

 discriminately in the bird-market under the name cf 

 Combasou ; strictly speaking I believe this name applies 

 to the West African type : Captain Shelley rightly 

 alters the specific name of this bird to II. chcdybeata, 

 under which name it was described in 1776, whereas 

 the name tr ma was not given until 1854. 



COMBASOU 



Black, glossed with greenish blue, flights and tail- 

 feathers partly blackish -brown ; beak pale creamy 

 yellowish ; feet salmon-red ; irides brown. Female 

 above brown; upper back, scapulars and inner wing- 

 coverts with dark centres ; remainder of wing and tail 

 dark brown with narrow pale edges to the feathers ; 

 crown with a longitudinal huffish stripe edged broadly 

 with blackish-brown; sides of head buff, brownish on 

 ear-coverts, dark brown on the upper portion ; under 

 surface pale brown, becoming white at centre of breast, 

 abdomen and under tail-coverts ; beak horny white ; 

 feet rosy pink; irides brown. Hab., Senegal to Grand 

 Basam. 



Of this, the most frequently imported of the forms 

 of JI u /nx-lnt r<i . no field notes appear to have been 

 published, but doubtless it has the same habits as its 

 near relatives the Ultramarine and Steel Finches. 



In captivity, although the Coribasou is always ready 

 to breed, and is very energetic in defence of its nest, 



it is quite unusual for any brood to be reared ; even 

 Dr. Russ, after numerous trials, was only once suc- 

 cessful in obtaining young. 



The Combasou is an excitable little bird, but perfectly 

 innocent ; its call-note is a chirp, and its song a harsh 

 sputtering chatter, which reminds one somewhat of 

 Castanets. I have had a good many examples of both 

 .--exes, and have found the hens when they did not die 

 through egg-binding even more hardy and long-lived 

 than the cocks. 



The breeding-plumage, both of this and the Ultra- 

 marine Finch, is usually assumed between the months 

 of July and September, but it is not an uncommon 

 occurrence for an old male to retain its summer dress 

 for several years in succession, and to die when at length 

 it puts it off ; one of my birds retained its full-dress 

 uniform for about four years. 



STEEL FINCH (Hyporhrni amauropfery.r). 



Darker than the preceding, apparently greenish black ; 

 wings brown: otherwise similar. Hab., Congo, south- 

 ward through Ondonga to the Transvaal and through 

 Central and Eastern South Tropical Africa. (cf. 

 Shelley.) 



One writer describes the beak as dark pink and 

 another as red ; but there is not the least doubt that 

 all the examples of the three imported types agree in 

 having pale creamy-yellowish or ivory whitish beaks. 

 I should imagine that the error arose at a time when 

 these birds were in winter plumage ami perhaps 

 mingled with examples of some red-billed Vidua in 

 similar plumage. 



Stark says of the habits of this bird : " Resemble 

 those of the other species of the genus. Mr. Barratt 

 writes in Tl\<> 11 n* for 1876, p. 207. under the .synonym 

 of ( '/i^It/ljciifa, "I found a few of this species in and 

 around a large fruit-garden, a few miles from Rusten- 

 burg. The ones procured we v e scattered about the 

 hedgerows, whetfe I shot them." 



I'nder //. fu IK fin (which he considers only sub- 

 specifically distinct, as I do the whole of the 

 / 1 i//ir>c7i (>&) : " Very little has been recorded regarding 

 the habits of the present Widow-Finch." 



I do not think the present type has ever been in my 

 possession ; but, as most of my males died in moult and 

 consequently were not worth preserving, I have no 

 means of deciding the point. 



ULTBAMABIXE FINCH (HypocJiera ultramarina). 



Glossy prussian blue appearing black in certain 

 lights ; 'flights and tail blackish. 'Soft parts as in the 

 other species. Female dark brown, the feathers with 

 dull whitish margins : head with a central abbreviated 

 longitudinal buff -whitish stripe, a second above eye and 

 a third below it ; body below sordid whitish : throat, 

 breast and flanks dull greyish more or less fulveseont, 

 as also the vent; tail smoky-brown. Hab., Gold Const 

 to the Niger and eastward over Northern Tropical 

 Africa to as far north as 23 deg. N. lat. 



In its wild state this species breeds either in holes 

 in trees or in houses, sometimes in*- Swallows' nests, 

 building after the manner of our House-Sparrow, with 

 any rubbish it can collect together, under rafters or 

 in 'odd corners; the nest is neatly and warmly lined, 

 and three to five pure white eggs are deposited. When 

 not breeding, or even when rearing the young, the 

 adult birds collect together in the tin rail fields, in which 

 they play havoc, and on the floors of barns and stables. 

 The breeding season seems to continue from January to 

 September; naturally this bird rears several broods 

 during the year. 



Tn my aviaries the " Ultramarine Finch," so called, 

 although it is black glossed with bright steel-blue, 



