THE COMORO WEAVER. 309 



alone, but after an hour's vain pursuit with a net, I was finally com- 

 pelled to soak him with a garden syringe, before I was enabled to net 

 him. Since that time he has been as wild as a hawk, dashing himself 

 fiercely against the wirework of his prison, whenever anyone conies 

 within a few yards of him.* 



Very little seems to be known respecting the wild life of this 

 species; but in the island of Anjuan, where it is known to the natives 

 by the name of " Paranioran " it is said not to be common : it lays 

 light blue eggs. So far as I have been able to discover, this is all 

 that has been published hitherto respecting its habits in freedom. 



My bird was given to me about the year 1890, by the Hon. 

 Walter Rothschild, and it regularly assumes its bright colouring in 

 April, retaining it for fully six months. 



Touching its behaviour in the bird-room, Dr. Russ can tell us 

 next to nothing : indeed, he says he should scarcely dare to speak of 

 it as an imported bird, if he had not received a single specimen, 

 purchased for him from one of the small dealers. This example was 

 in bad condition, and just on the point of going out of colour. It 

 flew for some time in his bird-room, but was sickly, and in the first 

 year did not regain its bright colouring. Subsequently it was killed 

 by the bite of a Parrot. Dr. Russ considers the bird a very great 

 rarity ; but I think, if he followed the example of Mr. Baumgarte, the 

 Railway official, whom he mentions as visiting the small dealers' shops, 

 he would find the Comoro Weaver now and again offered for sale as 

 its commoner relative. I believe many of us lose a good deal, by 

 sticking too exclusively to the larger dealers : personally, I am foolishly 

 conservative in this matter, never going out of my way to look for 

 chance rarities ; though if they come to me, I purchase them. 



I do not consider the Comoro Weaver half so beautiful a bird as 

 the Madagascar species ; Dr. Russ, on the other hand, though he 

 possessed only a bad example, speaks of it as having a " dissimilar, 

 more beautiful, and more fiery scarlet " colour : this, I believe, is an 

 error, an optical illusion, arising from the fact that the scarlet of the 

 Comoro bird is more restricted and surrounded by duller tints. When 

 the two birds are disputing, within a foot of each other, the red of 

 one is indistinguishable from that of the other. 



Canary seed is the staple food of this, and the allied Weavers, 

 but they are very fond of spray millet and paddy-rice. 



Illustration from a living male formerly in the author's collection. 



* In 1898 I turned him into an aviary with Cow-birds and Cardinals; but he had already so 

 knocked himself about, that he died soon afterwards. 



