66 BIRD .ARCHITECTS 



a Panama hat without materially damaging it. Fresh 

 eggs may be taken from October to the end of December, 

 according to the season. These are invariably of a 

 whitish colour thickly spotted with pale rusty-red. 



This bird has a wild, weird song, containing many 

 sweet notes, and is not in our opinion harsh or creaking, 

 although it has a chirping call which is rather harsh and 

 somewhat unique. It is called the Bush-musician, or 

 Bos-musikant in the English or Dutch vernacular. 



The White-browed Weaver (Ploceipasser mahali) is a 

 light brown sparrow-like bird with a black head and a 

 conspicuous white eyebrow. 



It is an extremely common bird around Brandfort, 

 Orange River Colony, where its loud, peculiar warble 

 may always be heard amongst the mimosa scrub. 



Here, too, they construct their large, untidy nests of 

 grass stems, with two entrance holes below; one is 

 stopped up during the breeding season, but is opened 

 for the winter months, when the nest serves as a roosting 

 place. We have seen as many as ten or twelve nests in 

 a single tree. 



The eggs are white shaded with pink, and blotched and 

 streaked with pinkish-brown. 



This bird is not found south of the Orange River valley. 



A pretty little species is the Scaly-feathered Weaver 

 (Sporopipes squamifrons) , which is light brown in colour, 

 with the feathers of the forepart of the head black mar- 

 gined with white, giving to this portion a scaly appear- 

 ance. It is a small bird, being a little over 4 inches in 

 length, and ranges from Northern Cape Colony north- 

 wards to Rhodesia. 



They are very common in the mimosa scrub along the 



