WEAVERS. 



195 



British Museum catalogue, it has doubtless been copied 

 from the assertion of some traveller who stated dog- 

 matically what he imagined to be true. 



BLACK-VENTED WEAVER (Pyromdana nigriventris). 



Wlien in full plumage the male is exceedingly beauti- 

 ful not unlike a diminutive reproduction of the pre- 

 ceding species ; the female, however, is more like that 

 sex of the Orange Weaver, with which it has been con- 

 founded, but marked on the upper surface much more 

 nearly as in the Grenadier Weaver ; it is also a little 

 smaller than the Orange Bishop, has a shorter beak, 

 the chin and throat pure white, and the under surface 

 generally is whiter, with scarcely a trace of the 

 streaking which is so distinctly noticeable in the female 

 Orange Weaver. Hab., East Africa, between the Zam- 

 besi and the Equator, east of 35 deg. E. long. 

 (Shelley.) 



In Zanzibar this bird, according to Dr. Stuhlmann, is 

 known to the natives as the "Baniani." 



Here Fischer obtained nests and eggs. He describes 

 the former as much resembling that of P. flammiceps, 

 " of a lengthened oval shape with the opening at one 

 side, constructed of coarse grass lined with fine grass, 

 and attached, some five or six feet from the ground, to 

 the reeds or thick covert in marshy places. The eggs 

 in the nest are two, or sometimes three, in number ; 

 they are pale blue, occasionally spotted with dusky 

 greyish brown, and their average measurement is 

 0.68 in. by 0.52 in." 



A rarely imported Weaver from Eastern Africa which 

 may occasionally be picked up for a few shillings among 

 mixed consignments of small Weavers out of colour. 



I recognised a female of this rare Weaver in one of 

 two hens obtained in 1895 (amongst examples of 

 Napoleon and Orange Weavers out of colour) , and which 

 died in November of that year ; I therefore hoped that 

 at the change of plumage a male might also be dis- 

 covered, but up to the present time I have been dis- 

 appointed. It was bred in Germany in 1882. 



GRENADIER WEAVER (Pyromdana orix). 



The prevailing colour of the male in breeding 

 plumage varies from orange to scarlet, according to 

 age, the old birds being deeper in colour ; the feathers 

 of the neck (as in the allied Fire Weavers) can be 

 erected into a kind of swollen ruff when the bird is 

 excited ; the mantle and upper wing-coverts are cinna- 

 bar red with darker shaft-streaks ; the crown, sides of 

 head and chin, chest and abdomen black ; flights and 

 tail feathers brown, with paler borders ; beak black ; 

 feet flesh brown ; iris chestnut. The female is tawny 

 brown with black shaft-streaks forming tolerably 

 regular continuous narrow lines down the crown ; a 

 Avell-defined yellowish eyebrow streak ; under parts 

 pale wit'h darker streaks excepting on throat and 

 abdomen ; centre of body yellowish ; beak reddish 

 horn-brown, the lower mandible paler ; feet brown ; 

 iris ashy-brown. Male in winter much like the female, 

 but more heavily marked with black stripes. Hab., 

 Angola and the Limpopo River to the Cape of Good 

 Hope. 



Stark (" Birds of South Africa," Vol. I., pp. 127, 128) 

 thus describes the habits of this species: "The Red 

 Kaffir Fink is seldom found at any great distance from 

 marshy ground or the reed-overgrown borders of vleis 

 or rivers. It appears to be a resident in nearly all the 

 localities in which it occurs, although it may occa- 

 sionally be driven from a district for a time by drought 

 or want of food. In winter the Bishop Birds collect 

 in flocks sometimes numbering thousands of indivi- 

 duals, and frequently feed in the company of other 



Weaver Birds and Finches on seeds and grain. At 

 night they roost in extensive reed-beds or among 

 bushes. Few birds surpass in beauty the male of this 

 species in summer, when he has fully assumed his 

 gorgeous breeding dress of scarlet and velvety black. 

 At this season the cocks may be seen slowly gliding 

 over the reed beds with a curious ' hovering ' flight, 

 during which the body is kept very erect, the plumage 

 of the lower back puffed out, while that of the neck 

 is erected into a frill, looking, in the blazing sunshine, 

 like flames of fire slowly drifting to and fro. At times 

 they dance about in front of the females with puffed- 

 out plumes, turning from side to side as if to show oft 

 the full beauty of their plumage. 



" In the neighbourhood of Cape Town this Bishop 

 Bird builds its nest in August and September ; in Natal 

 in November or December, and again in March or 

 April. As a rule these birds nest in colonies, often of 

 great extent, the nests, which are domed and woven 

 out of grass, being attached to the stems of three or 

 four reeds, about four or five feet above the mud or 

 water. The eggs, four or five in number, are some- 

 what pyriform in shape, and of a uniform pale green- 

 ish-blue colour. They average 0.82 by 0.60. The 

 female sits for fourteen days. The young are at first 

 fed on small caterpillars and other insects, including 

 the larvae of mosquitoes." 



Why this common and really lovely bird is not 

 more freely imported than it is one cannot say ; pos- 

 sibly the dealers desire to keep up its price. When 

 out of colour it is doubtless sometimes sold cheaply by 

 the smaller dealers, who are unable to distinguish it 

 from the more freely imported kinds. 



Being decidedly larger than the well-known Orange 

 Weaver, and quite as combative, this bird should only 

 be associated with species well able to protect them- 

 selves. In flight, song, and manner of showing off^its 

 brilliant plumage it resembles the common species. 

 Dr. Russ bred a good many broods of Grenadier 

 Weavers. 



In September, 1906, Captain Horsbrugh sent me a 

 beautiful male of this species, which I turned into one 

 of my smaller aviaries with other Weavers, a pair of 

 Ouzels, and two Doves. In 1907, when it came into 

 colour, it completely dominated the aviary, making 

 itself objectionable to every bird excepting a male 

 Senegal Dove, which it followed everywhere, postur- 

 ing and singing to it almost incessantly, and attempt- 

 ing to pair up with it. A hen Rufous-necked Weaver 

 in the same aviary was ignored. 



ORANGE WEAVER (Pyromdana franciscana) . 



Altogether decidedly smaller than the Grenadier 

 Weaver, the male also differs in its orange chin and 

 throat ; the female in the heavier and less regular 

 streaking of the upper parts, and the short, ill-de- 

 fined eyebrow streak ; the flanks are less strongly 

 streaked. In the male when out of colour the black 

 streaks on the crown are narrower and more regular 

 than in the female, and the body below is less strongly 

 streaked. Hab., " Northern Tropical Africa between 

 22 deg. N. lat. and the Equator." (Shelley.) 



I quote the following notes from Captain Shelley's 

 "Birds of Africa," Vol. IV., Part 1, pp. 91, 93, and 

 94: "Dr. P. Rendall writes: 'Builds a woven grass 

 nest and lays two or three eggs of a deeper blue than 

 those of our Hedge Sparrow. The nest has a hole in 

 the side, and is built in a tall weed of the pea family 

 almost invariably.' " 



The following is from notes sent to the author by 

 Mr. A. L. Butler: "I found a pair breeding in a 

 thick 'Sont-tree near Khartoum, October 20. but th 



