308 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



THE COMORO WEAVER. 



Nesacanthis emineniissima, BONAP. 



| NHABITS the Muscarene Islands of Mayotte, Anjuan, Grand Comoro 

 1 and Mohilla : it is occasionally imported and the less instructed 

 among the dealers sometimes sell it as the hen of the Madagascar 

 Weaver : indeed my male bird, and my present male of Foudia mada- 

 gascariensis, were purchased as a pair, and given to me : in disposition 

 and voice the two birds are identical. 



From the Madagascar Weaver this species may readily be dis- 

 tinguished, when in breeding-plumage, by the olive instead of scarlet 

 colouring of the feathers of the mantle, scapulars, back and front of 

 croup on the upper parts ; the dull rosy whitish hind portion of the 

 under parts, with darker ashy-olive sides, and under tail-coverts, and 

 dull fulvous-tinted thighs. Length 5^ inches. Beak black ; legs flesh- 

 coloured ; iris reddish-brown. 



The female is olive-brown, with rather broad blackish streaks on the 

 back, median and greater wing-coverts tipped with white. Length 6 in. 

 N. eminentissima, at first sight, is very like Foudia madagascariensis, 

 but it is a slightly larger bird, with a more powerful beak. The two 

 species are incessantly disputing, and the more beautiful, but commoner 

 bird, always comes off second best. Indeed these two birds would be 

 better kept apart, for in the spring of 1894, one of my Madagascar 

 Weavers, after living in constant warfare, with another male of its own 

 species, and the Comoro bird, was killed by the latter. Probably such 

 an occurrence is extremely rare, for the battles of Weaver-birds, 

 though very noisy, and accompanied by a great display of ruffled and 

 quivering plumage, rarely result in actual blows. As with men, the 

 birds which make least outcry, fight most savagely ; they are too much 

 in earnest for bluster. In 1897 my bird became outrageously aggressive, 

 even terrifying two powerful Manyah Weavers by its violent on- 

 slaughts, so that they crouched on the ground in abject terror. So 

 demoralized were they, that they flew madly before the playful charge 

 of a male Napoleon Weaver, whom they had been accustomed to treat 

 with contempt. My Saffron Finches began to be terribly mauled, and 

 a White-throated Finch was partly scalped by this blood-thirsty Comoro : 

 therefore, on August gth, I determined to cage him in a large flight 



