THE MADAGASCAR WEAVER. 305 



the face pale greenish olivaceous; a well-defined whitish-olivaceous eye- 

 brow streak, and a dusky line along the upper ear-coverts; under parts 

 greyish, yellower on the throat and greener on the sides, under wing- 

 and tail-coverts. 



This species has been introduced into St. Helena, where it has 

 multiplied so greatly as to be a positive nuisance. In the bird-room 

 I have found it more combative than the so-called Fire Weavers, but 

 more particularly with its own species and the nearly allied, though 

 more powerful, Comoro Weaver ; indeed, I have no doubt, that the 

 death of my older male bird was due to a blow from the formidable 

 beak of Nesaeanthis, as I had already kept him five years, and he 

 appeared to be in perfect health on the morning of the day on which 

 I found him dead, below a pot of pea-sticks, which formed a favourite 

 roosting place of these Weavers. 



The Madagascar Weaver does not, however, confine his attacks to 

 other species of his own group, he is very fond of scaring away Java 

 Sparrows or the St. Helena Seed-eater from the seed-hoppers, or from 

 his favourite twigs ; but, curiously enough, I have never known him 

 to molest young birds, however near they might come to him : this 

 must have surprised the parents as well as myself, for they distinctly 

 showed their nervousness, when their newly fledged youngsters clambered 

 up on that cluster of pea-sticks, and did their utmost to coax them 

 away from the dreaded neighbourhood. 



My Madagascar Weavers have never shown the least inclination 

 to build, nor have they taken any special notice of the solitary hen, 

 of their own species in the aviary ; occasionally they have made one 

 jump after her, but when she flew away, they never attempted to 

 pursue her. 



Dr. Russ rightly says, that very little has been noted respecting 

 the wild life of this bird, but that in every respect it corresponds with 

 that of the Fire Weavers, the species being seen in pairs at nesting- 

 time, but subsequently in families, which later unite into immense 

 swarms, and do considerably mischief to the seed-crops. " In orna- 

 mental plumage, which in Madagascar the males assume in October, 

 and in Reunion in November and December, they fight one another 

 furiously. The Naturalist Pollen describes the nest as pear-shaped, 

 with lateral entrance hole, made of fine grasses, plaited between two 

 to four branches of acacia, mimosa, tamarisk, &c., sometimes also in 

 a reed -thicket. Lafresnayes, on the other hand, figures the nest of a 

 longish round shape and suspended between thin twigs. Nothing more 

 definite is recorded." 



