70 BIED ARCHITECTS 



sess a red head) and below of a scaly appearance, these 

 regions being banded with bars of black and white. It 

 is a sociable bird, resembling the Cape Sparrow (Mossie) 

 in its general habits. It builds a large, rambling struc- 

 ture not unlike that of a Sparrow, and lays three white 

 eggs during the months of March to June. It is " local " 

 in distribution, and was very common at Modderfontein, 

 Transvaal, until 1900, even breeding there, but since the 

 war it has become exceedingly scarce, only appearing 

 occasionally as a " partial migrant." 



BISHOP- AND WIDOW-BIRDS. 



The genus Pyromelana contains a few well-known and 

 conspicuous birds, the first of which is the Eed Bishop- 

 bird or Kaffir-fink (P. oryx), too well known in its brilliant 

 plumage of orange-scarlet and black to need any descrip- 

 tion. It is a common resident from Northern Cape 

 Colony northwards. It is particularly common in the 

 Maroka district of the Orange Kiver Colony and the 

 Central Transvaal, where the authors have had personal 

 experience of its depredatory habits. In the first-men- 

 tioned country it is so destructive to the Kaffir corn and 

 wheat crops that it has earned the undying enmity of 

 the Barolong natives, who trap and kill it wherever 

 and whenever they can. It nests in the reed-beds which 

 border the spruits (rivulets), many hundreds of nests 

 being congregated together in a space of as many square 

 feet. It is not an uncommon sight to see two or three 

 nests suspended between a single pair of reeds. The 

 nest is shaped like a pouch with a domed opening at the 

 side near the top, and is usually constructed of strips 

 torn from the leaves of the reeds. It lays three or four 

 eggs of a beautiful deep greenish-blue colour and rather 



