PLOCEID^R HYPHANTORNIS 59 



middle coverts tipped, the quills edged with yellow ; tail-feathers 

 olive-brown edged with yellow ; edge of wing yellow ; axillaries 

 white tinged with yellow ; under wing-coverts grey ; inner margin 

 of quills yellow, 



Iris orange-red ; bill black ; tarsi and feet flesh-colour. 



Length 5-80; wingS'OO; tail 2-10 ; tarsus 0-80 ; culmenO-65. 



Adult male in winter. Above ash -brown streaked with darker 

 brown, the crown and nape tinged with olive-yellow ; rump and 

 upper tail-coverts unstreaked olive-yellow ; lesser wing-coverts olive- 

 yellow with brown bases ; rest of coverts and quills brown margined 

 with yellow or olive, the middle coverts tipped with pale yellow ; 

 tail olive-brown tinged with yellow ; lores dusky ; a faint eyebrow 

 yellowish; ear-coverts, sides of face and neck olive-brown tinged 

 with yellow ; cheeks and throat yellowish- white ; breast, sides and 

 flanks pale brown tinged with yellow ; centre of abdomen white ; 

 under tail-coverts fawn-yellow ; edge of wing bright yellow ; 

 axillaries and under-wing- coverts pale yellow. 



Iris light brown ; bill dark brown ; legs and feet dark flesh- 

 colour. 



Adult female. Eesembles the male in winter, but the lower 

 back, rump and upper tail-coverts are ash-brown instead of olive- 

 yellow. 



Specimens from northern localities are smaller and brighter than 

 those from further south. They have been separated and called 

 H. mariquensis ; but there is a regular gradation in size and colour 

 from south to north or vice versa. 



Distribution. From Central Cape Colony, where it is common 

 in the neighbourhood of Nel's Poort and Colesberg, through 

 Bechuanaland to Damara Land and Benguela ; eastward into the 

 Orange Free State and Natal ; northward throughout the Transvaal 

 into Matabililand, but becoming less numerous to the north of the 

 Limpopo Eiver. 



Habits. These Weaver Birds are gregarious at all seasons of 

 the year, and in summer frequently form very large breeding 

 colonies, often consisting of several hundred pairs of birds. Fre- 

 quently they commence building their kidney-shaped nests very 

 early in the spring, towards the end of July or beginning of August, 

 when many of the males still retain their immature or winter dress ; 

 but the nests are not completed, or the eggs laid, as a rule, until 

 the beginning of November. 



As a breeding place these birds prefer reed-beds, if any are 



