BISHOP- AND WIDOW-BIRDS 71 



pyriform in shape. To see several hundred of these birds 

 flitting about the reeds is a glorious sight, the habit they 

 have of fluffing out the feathers giving a brilliance and 

 intensity of colour to the vivid red and glossy black, 

 of which the prepared skin exhibits but little trace. 



Its smaller congener, the Golden Bishop (P. taha\ 

 is not nearly so common. In its beautiful golden-yellow 

 and glossy black plumage it looks like a ball of gold 

 as it flits over the marshy, weed-covered patches it 

 delights to make its home in, fluffing up its feathers 

 and emitting its grating, chirp-like call. It builds a 

 similar nest to that of the Red Bishop, constructing it, 

 however, chiefly of fine grass, and placing it amongst the 

 rank weeds. It lays four to six eggs of a white ground 

 colour, spotted with tiny dots of very dark brown. This 

 species is not found in the Cape Colony. It is somewhat 

 " local " in distribution, appearing in certain localities in 

 fair numbers one season, and being almost unknown there 

 the next. 



The Cape or Yellow Bishop-Bird (P. capensis) and 

 its two sub-species, are larger birds than the Golden 

 Bishop, and differ in having the top of the head black 

 instead of this region being yellow, as is the case with 

 the Golden Bishop. The sub-species (P. c. approximans) , 

 inhabiting Eastern Cape Colony northwards, is smaller 

 than the western form, while the northern form is 

 intermediate in size between the two, and has, moreover, 

 black thighs (P. c. xanthomelcena}. 



The males of this genus change their summer plumage 

 by abrasion into a dull brown colour during the winter 

 months, more in keeping with the leafless reeds and 

 dried-up veld. The females are always of this dull 

 colour. 



