WHYDAHS. 



187 



seemed always to select a Hartz cage for breeding 

 purposes. I never succeeded in rearing any young ; in 

 fact the hens generally died egg-bound, sometimes with 

 the second egg, which was doubly irritating. 



RESPLENDENT WHYDAH (Vidua hypocherina). 



Glossy steel-blue ; wing-coverts black, edged with 

 greenish blue ; primary-coverts brown ; flights black 

 with whitish edges ; innermost secondaries glossed with 

 .steel-blue ; tail black ; inner webs of feathers edged 

 with whitish at extremities ; long central feathers 

 greenish ; a few greyish-white feathers on flanks ; a 

 large white patch below wings at sides of back ; under 

 wing-coverts and axillaries also white ; flights below 

 greyish, white along inner webs ; beak and feet dusky ; 

 irides dark brown : in winter said to resemble the 

 female, but probably larger and darker. Female above 

 generally mottled deep brown with broad rufescent 

 huffish borders to the feathers ; some of the median 

 coverts bordered and the primaries narrowly edged 

 with white ; tail-feathers similar ; head with centre of 

 crown reddish buff bounded on each side by a broad 

 Wack band from beak to nape ; a broad white eyebrow- 

 stripe washed with reddish buff at its extremities ; 

 cheeks and ear-coverts of the same colour, but the 

 latter surmounted by a black streak ; under surface 

 white, suffused with reddish buff at the sides of breast 

 and abdomen, the litter also with brown shaft-stripes: 

 beak and feet pale brown; irides brown. Hab., Ugogo 

 to Somaliland and Southern Abyssinia. 



According to Shelley (" Birds of Africa," Vol. IV., 

 Part 1, p. 15), Fischer " found these birds in flocks of 

 from ten to thirty in company with Lagonosticta 

 brunn-eiceps and Vidua serena feeding on the bare 

 ground, where caravans had halted and left scattered 

 corn behind. In Somaliland Mr. Hawker saw these 

 birds only at Arabsiyo and Hargeisa ; at the latter 

 place they joined in flocks with other Finches on the 

 ' jowari' stubbles." This is all I have found respecting 

 the wild life. 



In captivity this Whydah is often called the " Long- 

 tailed Combasou." As already stated, Mr. Fulljames was 

 the owner of a beautiful example in 1898. and it has 

 Taeen exhibited at the London Zoological Gardens, but 

 it has never been a common species in the bird-market. 

 Dr. Russ does not include it in his work. 



PIN-TAILED WHYDAH (Vidua principal is}.* 

 The male in full colour has the top of the head, chin, 

 and back, a short band running forwards on each side 

 on to the chest, and the tail greenish black ; wings 

 black, with a broad band of white running across the 

 coverts, the larger coverts edged with buff ; the throat, 

 a narrow ring running round the back of the neck ; 

 the breast, belly, and under tail-coverts white ; beak, 

 coral red ; iris of eye, dark brown ; legs, reddish 

 hrown. The female above is mottled brown and black ; 

 on the head are six blackish stripes intersected by 

 "brown ?tripes, dotted with dark brown, excepting in the 

 region of the eye ; the under parts are whitish stained 

 on the flanks with tawny. Hab., Africa south of about 

 17 deg. N. Lat., also the islands of St. Thomas and 

 Fernando Po. (Shelley.) 



In its native country this species is seen, either in 

 pairs or in small flocks ; it visits Damara and Great 

 Namaqualand during the rainy season ; in its wild state 

 it feeds on various grass-seeds. 



Stark ("Birds of South Africa," Vol. I., p. 147) 

 observes that "in addition to its wide range, this 



* Shelley has substituted the name serena for prineipalit 

 because it was printed on page 312 and principdlis on page 

 313 of the " Systema Natiine." Strictly sneaking he is correct in 

 doing so, but it seems a pity where both names were published 

 simultaneously to upset the one which is best known. 



species of Widow Bird, in South Africa, everywhere 

 largely outnumbers its congeners, and in many districts 

 is a very common bird. During autumn and winter 

 they occasionally collect in very large flocks, frequently 

 mingled with those of the smaller Weavers and Wax- 

 bills. In summer they disperse in smaller parties, each 

 consisting of a single male and from ten to forty or 

 even fifty females. The Pin-tail Widow Bird is much 

 more lively and active in its movements than are the 

 two other species of the genus, and the cock is, not- 

 withstanding his long tail, an excellent flier. As Ayres 

 remarks, " During the breeding season, when the won- 

 derful tail of the cock bird is fully developed, he will 

 sometimes rise until nearly out of sight, when he 

 suddenly descends with much velocity, and if approached 

 makes off with ease and swiftness." The same gentle- 

 man writes, " The male of this species has a curious 

 habit of hovering over his mate when she is feeding on 

 the ground, bobbing up and down as you see the Mayflies 

 and Midges do on a summer's evening in England. 

 This exercise he generally continues some minutes with- 

 out resting." Like the other Widow Birds the present 

 species feeds upon small seeds, principally grass-seeds, 

 also upon small insects and their eggs. Its ordinary 

 call-note is 1 a sharp chirp, but in spring the male utters 

 a soft warbling song from the top of a bush or tall 

 weed. In Natal this species breeds during the wet 

 season, from November to the end of February or 

 beginning of March. A somewhat openly woven 

 domed nest of fine grass is suspended between the 

 stems of a thick grass tuft a few inches off the ground, 

 the ends of the growing grass being tied together over 

 the nest so as to completely conceal it. The only nests 

 that I have seen contained young birds, from three to 

 four in number. The eggs have not been described." 



Capt. Shelley says " Birds of Africa," Vol. IV., 

 Part 1, p. 19) : " The egg is glossy greyish white, with 

 underlying violet marks and clear black or dark brown 

 elongated surface-marks evenly distributed. It measures 

 0.08 by 0.50." 



In the Journal of the South African Ornithologists' 

 Union, 2nd Ser., Vol. I., pp. 9-11, is a paper by Mr. 

 Austin Roberts, in which he concludes that the Pin- 

 tailed Whydah does not build its own nest, but is 

 parasitic upon the various Waxbills, devouring one or 

 more of their eggs and substituting its own eggs for 

 them. From what he says, it is evident that the larger 

 eggs which frequently occur with those of the normal 

 size in the nests of Waxbills are pure white, whereas 

 the egg described by Captain Shelley, without any 

 note of doubt, as that of the Pin-tailed Whydah, is 

 nothing of the kind. I must confess that I consider 

 Mr. Roberts' notes far from conclusive. Other Why- 

 dahs build their own nests and lay spotted eggs ; 

 therefore why, on the strength of the statements of 

 negroes, the discovery of eggs of two sizes in the nests 

 of Waxbills and the fact that V. princiimlis, like 

 many other birds, is an egg-stealer, should we come to 

 so improbable a conclusion as that this bird alone 

 among the Whydahs has the instincts of a Cuckoo or a 

 Cowbird 1 



In an aviary I have found this Whydah unbearable 

 when in breeding plumage, though quiet at other times ; 

 with its long tail it looks much larger than it actually 

 is, and its evolutions are so rapid that when flying it 

 resembles a winged tadpole rather than a bird ; being 

 certainly polygamous by nature, as nearly all the 

 Whydans or Widow-birds are, it no sooner spies a hen 

 of any Weaver feeding quietly than it darts per- 

 pendicularly downwards from its branch, like an arrow 

 from a bow, and as it nears the unsuspecting little 

 thing it gives a squeak., as if hurt, and the two roll 



