ft 



60 PLOCEID^ HYPHANTORNIS 



available, but should there be none, they suspend their nests from 

 trees and bushes overhanging water, or occasionally over dry 

 ground. When built among reeds, the nests are usually attached 

 to two stems by the sides ; but when in trees they are suspended 

 from the drooping twigs. Like most of the Weaver Birds this 

 species becomes very tame during the breeding-season, and it is 

 a pleasing sight to watch the busy birds as they are engaged in 

 constructing their ingeniously formed nests. They work with the 

 greatest energy, the male fetching the long green grass-stems out 

 of which the nests are woven, and usually assisting from the 

 outside by passing one end through to the female inside the nest, 

 she passing it back again, and so on. Whilst engaged in this work 

 the birds frequently hang back downwards with extended wings, 

 swaying gently to and fro, and all the time keeping up a ceaseless 

 chattering. 



In districts where the Sanseviera grows the nests of the .Masked 

 Weaver Birds are often constructed entirely of the marginal fibres 

 of this plant. 



The entrance to the nest is from below, the nest itself being 

 shaped like a retort without a neck, or the shell of a garden snail. 

 Although this species subsist largely on grain and grass-seed during 

 winter, it feeds freely on insects during summer. The young are 

 fed on soft larvae, caterpillars and small grasshoppers. They 

 remain in the nest for about thirty days. 



The eggs of this Weaver, usually three in number, vary remark- 

 ably in colour, even in the same nest. They are of some shade 

 of white, cream-colour, pink, green, or blue ; often unspotted, 

 but more frequently marked, more or less thickly, with small spots 

 and dots of various shades of red and brown ; less often they are 

 blotched and clouded heavily with large masses of the same 

 colours. They are somewhat elongated in shape, and average 

 0-93 x 0-58. 



26. Hyphantornis spilonotus. Spotted-backed Weaver Bird. 



Ploceus spilonotus, Vigors, P. Z. S. 1831, p. 92 ; Smith, III. Zool. S. 



Afr. Birds, pi. 66, fig. 1, (1841) ; Shelley, Ibis, 1887, p. 29. 

 Hyphantornis spilonotus, Gray, Gen. B. p. 351 (1849) ; Layard, B. S. 



Afr. p. 181 (1867) ; Gurney in Andersson's B. Damara Land, p. 169 



(1872) ; Sharpe, ed. Layard's B. S. Afr. pp. 437, 847 (1884) ; id. Cat. 



B. M. xiii, p. 468 (1890) ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 39 (1896). 



