THE PIN-TAII.RD WHVDAH. 269 



by Mr. Ayres, but attributed it to a design of the male to take care 

 of his long tail." 



Mr. Ayres' account is : " 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 

 for some minutes without resting." 



Of course, all aviarists who have kept several species of Whydahs, 

 will at once recognize both the above mentioned peculiarities, not as 

 traits of one, but of all the species of Whydah-birds ; they are seen 

 equally in the Combasou and Paradise Whydah. When on the 

 ground, the long-tailed species seem to keep their tail-feathers " partly 

 elevated above the dirt ; though in old birds the extreme ends often 

 get frayed and soiled by contact with the earth or sand. 



Von Heuglin's account differs somewhat from the preceding ; he 

 says : " Although not exactly abundant, nevertheless, generally dis- 

 tributed over suitable districts ; yet for the most part only singly and 

 in pairs, in autumn in small family parties. It usually affects the 

 beds of the torrents under overhanging foliage, clearings in tall 

 forest, and thickets near desert-brooks; this delicate little bird also 

 appears in the neighbourhood of human settlements, in cattle parks 

 and in cotton and hibiscus plantations. It stays over the rainy 

 season, during which the business of breeding is proceeded with, in 

 certain localities ; the male usually perched higher in the tops of the 

 thorn-trees, from which its soft prattling song may frequently be 

 heard. Contrary to Layard's and Ayres' assertion, I have never seen 

 it on the earth. The food consists of seeds and insects with their 

 eggs. They are of a placid, not very sprightly disposition, do not fly 

 exactly clumsily, but yet never far, and they hop and slide more 

 through the bush than V. paradisea. At the commencement of the 

 rainy-season I obtained a nest, which my hunters described as that of 

 the Red-beaked Widow. It was placed at a height of five to six feet, 

 by a watercourse, on the overhanging branch of a Combretacea ; three 

 or four of the long leaves of the tree were literally stitched together, that 

 is to say, their edges bored through and bound together with root fibre; 

 the somewhat small sack-shaped space between these leaves, lined and 

 covered with vegetable wool and fine hairs, the nest-cavity tolerably deep. 



" In the neighbourhood of the upper White Nile, I only met 

 with the Red-beaked Widow in September ; possibly it may have 

 escaped my notice previous to the rainy-season, in consequence of its 

 inconspicuous winter plumage." 



