196 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



tree was so thorny that I could not reach the nest. 

 The males in the breeding season are a most beautiful 

 sight, dozens of them collecting together on a small 

 patch of green dliuria. They have a pretty habit of 

 rising and hovering with a jerky flight over the sea 

 of glossy green diuirra blades, with their feathers puffed 

 out until they look like balls of scarlet and black- 

 velvet, this action being accompanied with a loud ' purr- 

 rr-purr-rr' of the wings. They nearly always putt' 

 themselves out in this manner when approaching a 

 female." 



I purchased my first pair of this lovely bird about 

 the year 1885, before I possessed any large aviaries. I 

 kept them in a cage about 18in. in all dimensions. The 

 cock bird seemed dull and listless from the first, and 

 even when in full breeding plumage 'he took no trouble 

 bo chase the hen after the manner of Weavers. 

 Eventually the hen set to work to build a nest, a task 

 which is 'generally considered to be the duty of the 

 cock; she worked away diligently at it all day, and 

 *lept inside it at night. At last, when the work was 

 well-nigh completed, both she and her mate died on 

 the same day, apparently from a slight attack of pneu- 

 monia. I purchased a second pair of Orange Weavers 

 (in 1888 or 1889), the cock being then out of colour; 

 these birds amused themselves with playing with bits of 

 hay, twisting them 'in the wires of the aviary or round 

 the spray millet sticking in the wirework. here and 

 there, but never systematically went to work to 

 build a. ne.-t. The cock bird, in the breeding season, 

 first sings to the hen. and then chases her vigorously 

 about the aviary ; his position when singing, though 

 very effective for the display of his fiery colours, is 

 s. a'lewhat absurd; he sits very' upright, the neck 

 elongated with all its feathers expanded almost like a 

 ruff, which gives lit a puffed-out appearance. The song 

 is peculiar, a jumble of clear and harsh notes, and then 

 " }ntrri.*/i -rixJi " a sound quite metallic as he utters it, 

 and capable ot' exact imitation if you rapidly draw and 

 close a muslin blind, running with brass rings on a 

 brass rod. 



In the autumns of 1894 and 1895 I purchased a good 

 Tinny Weavers out of colour, among which were eight 

 males of this species, one of which built several globu- 

 lar nests in a small bush in 1895, but no eggs 

 laid. On December 8th, 1899, I found one egg of this 

 species on the earth in an aviary where I had one male 

 with three females; it is a blue egg about the size of 

 a Siskin's, but the colour of a Hedge-Accentor's. In 

 the winter of 1907-8 I left these four birds out in my 

 larger garden aviary, where they roosted outside under 

 the open wire netting during the severest frosts, two 

 of the hens died early in the winter, but the cock, 

 Avhich was in full colour, seemed none the worse. 



That Orange Weavers are long-lived will be evident 

 from the fact that up to 1898 I had only lost my first 

 male ; others died three males in 1899 all in colour, 

 one in 1900 in colour, one in 1901 beginning to come 

 into colour, and one in 1902 in colour. Of females 

 which I have preserved I only have three, which died 

 in 1895, 1898, and 1901. 



RED-BILLED WEAVER. (Qiiflea quelea). 



The Red-billed Weaver is generally distributed over 

 Africa. The typical form, when in breeding plumage, 

 is very pretty, the forehead, front of face and chin, 

 being occupied by a black mask, which includes the 

 eye ; the rest of the head, throat, and breast bright 

 rose colour, shading into brown on the back and 

 whitish on the belly, the feathers of the back are 

 dark brown with paler borders, and the wings and 



tail are brown; the beak is lake-red, and the legs aie 

 flesh coloured. The female is, as usual, brown, with 

 darker shaft-streaks to the feathers, the nights and 

 tail-feathers brown edged with yellow ; cheeks and 

 under parts huffish, centre of body below white ; beak 

 waxy ochre yellow. Hab., Africa, south of the Senegal 

 Rive'r, the Albert Nyanza, and Lake .Nyassa. 



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

 123) : " But little has been recorded regarding the habits 

 of this Weaver in a wild state." Ayres remarks that it 

 is " tolerably common in Potchefstroom and the neigh- 

 bourhood in summer, associating freely with the nights 

 of Pyromelana oryx which swarms here. It feeds with 

 them in the open grass}- plains and cornfields, prin- 

 cipally on small grass-seeds which they pick from the 

 ground." 



Of this species I have had a good many pairs, and 

 the cock birds are always at work, during the breed- 

 ing season, building their cleverly constructed ball- 

 shaped nests, and in the winter pulling them to pieces. 

 When building they will let no other Weaver approach 

 them, but will raise their wings almost over their 

 heads, and use shocking language at the intruders. 

 ]5ut when weary of this work, they rest on a branch 

 at a short distance, and any bird may meddle Avith the 

 nest with impunity, unless it so happens that the Avork- 

 ing fit comes on again whilst some meddlesome fellow is 

 trying to discover IIOAV it is put together, Avhen 

 there is sure to be a charge, a chase, and much chatter- 

 ing, but nothing worse. 



isidermu how incessantly these birds build in an 

 aviary, it is surprising how unsatisfactory the result of 

 all the labour is. I have only once got as far as eggs, 

 and these were not hatched. From successful t-xpen- 

 meiits made in Germany, it appears that the clutch 

 of blue-green eggs varies from three to seven, uiid incu- 

 bation Lists fourteen days. 



The variety named after Dr. Russ is a degenerate 

 form of the species, in which the black face-mark is 

 replaced by buff. At its change of colour in 1896 one 

 of my male Red -bills appeared without the black mask, 

 assuming the dress of Buss's WeaA r er. The bird Avas 

 probably getting old and weak, for it died after its 

 change in the following year. In 1904 another of my 

 males, Avhich I had possessed for a good many years, 

 assumed an intermediate plumage, in which the black 

 all disappeared with the exception of a broad crescent 

 over the back of the ear-coverts ; in 1905 this also 

 vanished, and it became a typical Russ's WeaA-er : 

 this bird, however, continued to live until the end of 

 April, 1908, Avhen it became ill and was killed by 

 another cock-bird. I therefore regard the incapacitv 

 to deposit black pigment in this species as an evidence 

 of a feeble condition of health ; some individuals seem 

 to be born thus. 



Captain Shelley also told me that he had always 

 doubted the distinctness, of the tAvo birds, as he had 

 on seA'eral occasions shot both from the same flock. In 

 his work on the Birds of Africa he sinks it as a 

 synonvmof Qui'lm i/iu'lca- but in his k^y to the species, 

 describes it as a variety; it is actually nothing so 

 permanent as a variety, being merely an albinistic 

 phase. 



RED-HEADED WEAVER (Quelea erythrops). 



The male differs from the preceding species in having 

 the beak blackish ; the entire head and upper half o" 

 throat crimson, becoming nearly black on the chin and 

 centre of throat ; lower mandible of beak pale ; feet 

 reddish brown ; irides brown. Female differs from 

 that sex of Q. ffticlca by itis beak being dark brown, 

 Avith paler lower mandible. Hab., Island of St. 

 Thomas, " and ranges from Senegal to the Quanza 



