190 



FOREIGN BIEDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



beak and feet black. Female above pale brown, with 

 blackish centres to the feathers ; a well-defined yellowish 

 white eyebrow-fitripe and a patch of the same colour 

 below the eye ; a black loral band and a continuation 

 behind the eye; ear-coverts huffish brown; below buff, 

 chin and throat yellower ; breast washed with tawny 

 brown, with some darker shaft-stripes ; wings below 

 dull greyish, paler on the coverts; beak and feet pale 

 brown : iridvs brown. Hah.. Eastern half of Africa 

 south of the Equator and ranges into Angola. (Shelley.) 



In Sharps and Layard's " Birds of South Africa," 

 pp. 455, 456, are the following notes on the wild life : 

 "Mr. Guillemard writes: Vidua ardunx is, not uncom- 

 mon on the rivers of the north-western Transvaal, and 

 may be met with even as low as Rustenberg. It is fond 

 of haunting large reed beds, from which it does not 

 seem to wander far ; indeed, it is so shy that one is 

 rarely able to get a. shot at it. At a distance they 

 much resemble Ch<-ra f/rof/ni', from which they are only 

 to be distinguished by their smaller size. In summer 

 plumage the bill and feet are jet black, and, besides the 

 tipping of the under tail-coverts with grey, there is 

 occasionally a grey feather or two about the head. 



" Captain Harford informs us that in Natal they fly in 

 flocks, five or six males with about fifty females. This 

 we also observed when we fell in with them in the 

 swampy grass lands and fields of Kaffir corn at Alice. 

 The females usually hid themselves in the sea of 

 herbage, diving to the bottom in a moment, while the 

 males, after occasionally doing battle with each other, 

 or hovering with the peculiar jerking, flapping motion, 

 common to this genus and Chera, over some of the 

 females concealed in the grass, would betake themselves 

 to some elevated head of corn or rush, and thence 

 survey the field. We feel convinced that all species of 

 the genus Vidua, and also ('hi-ra />/<>//<>, that we have 

 encountered in South Africa are polygamous. This 

 may also account for what Mr. Atmore and others tell 

 us of the breeding of several females of Estrdda asfrild 

 in the same nest." 



Stark ("Birds of South Africa," Vol. I., p. 143) says : 

 " The nests are domed, with a small entrance at the 

 side, carefully woven of fine grass in the centre of a 

 thick tuft of grass, many of the growing grass stems 

 being built into the walls of the nest, while Bothers are 

 plaited so as to form an arched bower over it." 



In Shelley's "Birds of Africa" is a note by Messrs. 

 Butler, Feilden and Reid to the effect that this bird 

 lays " little white speckled eggs." 



A beautiful but by no means freely imported species, 

 so that it always commands a tolerably high price, 

 Messrs. Cronkshaw, Fulljames, Todd, and others have 

 owned specimens of this Whydah ; it is said to be 

 decidedly pugnacious in captivity. 



In Angola a form of the species is sometimes met 

 with in which the bright collar is wholly wanting ; 

 although at first described as a distinct species, this is 

 now known to be only a melanism or black sport of the 

 common type. 



WHITE-WINGED WHYDAH (Penthetria albonotata). 

 Black ; lesser wing-coverts bright yellow ; middle 

 coverts edged with brownish-white ; outermost greater 

 coverts and primary-coverts white, remaining greater 

 coverts tipped with white and edged with brownish- 

 white ; flights edged, with brown, all excepting the 

 innermost secondaries ; under wing-coverts and axil- 

 laries white ; tips of latter and edge of wing yellow ; 

 beak pale blue; feet black; hides hazel. Female above 

 brownish black, the feathers broadly bordered with 

 pale brown ; lesser wing-coverts nvxstly yellow ; a broad 

 eyebrow-stripe and the under surface brownish buff, 



whitish towards chin and centre of breast; under wing- 

 coverts sandy butt', deeper on bend of sving ; beak, feet 

 and irides brown. Male in winter like the female ex- 

 cepting that the lesser wing-covert* are brighter yellow 

 and the white on the wing is present as in summer; 

 primaries also blacker. Hab., Natal to Ugogo. 



Stark observes (" Birds of South Africa." Vol. I., 

 p. 139) : "It frequents marshy ground on the benders 

 of vleis, where, in summer, thi; male sits on the summit 

 of a tall stem of grass or reed and shows off his glossy 

 black plumage and yellow .shoulder-knot, frequently 

 purring out the mvk feathers into a sort of ruff, like a 

 Bishop Bird, while opening and shutting his wings or 

 occasionally taking a short flight and hovering, like a 

 ViJna, with up-raised wings, over the grass, wlnre 

 doubtless one of his brown wives is concealed. I have 

 never had an opportunity of handling a female of this 

 S[H cies, but I have seen the male followed in his flight 

 by ten or a dozen hens, who appeared to be of a vrry 

 uniform brown colour, and very much smaller than 

 the cock, as is the case -with Uroorachya axillarle. The 

 male described had been feeding on grass seeds and 

 small beetles." 



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

 Part 1, .p. 48) : " The egg is described by Mr. Nehrkorn 

 as of a deep blue, with dull red and violet spots clustered 

 towards the thick end, and measuring 0.8 in. by 

 0.58 in." 



This species seems to be rare in South Africa, and 

 undoubtedly it is rarely imported ; yet it has been 

 exhibited more than once at the London Zoological 

 Gardens, and in 1896 Mr. Swaysland exhibited a bird 

 at the Pab.ce Show which was supposed to be this 

 species far advanced into the winter plumage. 



YELLOW-BACKED WHYDAH (rc>it?ftrit>/>.--i* macrura}. 



In breeding plumage the cock is jet black, but the 

 mantle and shoulders of the wings are adorned with 

 a broad belt of bright chrome yellow ; the wing covert s 

 are edged with tawny, and the flight feathers with 

 narrower pale brown margins. The hen is pale greyish 

 brown, the feathers of the shoulders and back edged 

 with yellowish ; the under parts whitish with darker 

 markings on the breast ; the beak and feet are pale 

 flesh coloured, the upper mandible brownish ; the iris 

 brown. The male in winter plumage nearly resembles 

 the female, but the wings are blacker and the lesser 

 coverts are bright yellow. Hab., from Senegambia 

 southward, the Niam-Niam country, Uganda, and the 

 mouth of the Tana river to Angola and the Zambesi 

 river. (Shelley.) 



The following field-notes are from Shelley's " Birds of 

 Africa," Vol. IV., Part L, p. 51 : " In the Niger dis- 

 trict Mr. Hartert found them in June and July at 

 Loko, in full plumage, assembling in large flocks with 

 other Finches in the rice and cornfields." 



" Along the Shire Valley Sir John Kirk saw large 

 numbers of them on the wide grass plains, flying from 

 one grass-head to another, always selecting the highest. 

 Knowing this, the natives catch them by setting a 

 noose on any grass-head rising above the others. ' The 

 breeding plumage,' he remarks, ' was assumed in 

 December, and lasted throughout the wet season. ^ The 

 nest was made of grass, woven among the stalks.'" 



According to Captain Shelley, " The eggs are pale 

 green, or greenish grey ?) spotted with grey, and 

 measure 0.8 in. by 0.55 in." 



The Yellow-backed Whydah inhabits damp localities 

 and builds its nest, which much resembles that of the 

 Oryx Weaver, in tall grass ; it lays from two to three 

 eggs. The species is said to be abundant at Accra. 



