288 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



To my mind this Weaver should be in the collection of every lover 

 of foreign birds ; it is so lively, amusing, and at the same time 

 beautiful in colouring, that nobody, who has kept it once, will ever 

 wish to be without it. When it has once got over the voyage to 

 England, it is wonderfully vigorous and long-lived : the pair in my 

 bird-room has been in perfect health for six or seven years (as I write), 

 and, as regularly as clockwork, each July the change to the breeding- 

 plumage in the male bird has commenced. I have four other males 

 and several females, purchased in 1895. 



When in full colour and seen from the front this Weaver always 

 looks like a little old black woman enveloped in a thick yellow hood. 

 Dr. Russ' description of its buzzing about is very good ; but he does 

 not mention the flipping up and down of the wings, which seems to 

 act upon the bird like the winding up of a machine ; so many turns, 

 and whiz ! off it goes like a shot, with all its feathers standing out ; 

 then, as it alights, in they all go, as if pulled by a string from 

 behind. In fact the whole action is extremely suggestive of a 

 mechanical toy. The song begins with a slow harsh chirping Chick, 

 chick, chick, chick, chick, and ends like a hacking cough with a rapid 

 tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tock. 



Illustrations from living specimens and from skins in the author's 

 collection. 



THE CRIMSON-CROWNED WEAVER. 



Pyromelana flammiceps, SwAINS. 



AN inhabitant of North-Eastern and Western Africa, its range 

 extends from Southern Senaar to the Zanzibar district, and from 

 the Quanza River to Senegal. 



Prevailing colour of the male, in breeding-plumage, fiery orange- 

 red, the scapulars, and centre of back glossy orange-brown, a narrow 

 frontal band, an elongated patch from the beak to the back of the face 

 (enclosing the eye), the chin, front of throat, chest, and front of 



