PLOCEID^ HYPHANTOKNIS 61 



Description. Adult male in breeding plumage. Crown, and nape 

 golden-yellow ; back and wing-coverts black, each feather tipped with 

 yellow ; quills blackish edged with yellow or white ; rump uniform 

 ash-brown ; upper tail-coverts olive tipped with yellow ; tail feathers 

 olive-brown tinged and edged with yellow ; lores, eyebrow, sides 

 of face, ear-coverts, cheeks and throat black ; sides of neck and 

 under surface of body yellow, tinged with golden on the sides of 

 neck and breast ; edge of wing yellow ; under wing-coverts and 

 under surface of quills dusky, edged and tinged with yellow. 



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



Length 7-00; wing 3-60; tail 2-60; tarsus 0*90; culmenOSO. 



Adult female. Above ash-brown, the back and scapulars 

 streaked with dusky ; upper tail-coverts and tail light brown tinged 

 with olive-yellow ; crown and neck olive-yellow streaked with 

 dusky; eyebrow and sides of face pale yellow; ear-coverts olive; 

 cheeks and under surface of body pale yellow, nearly white on the 

 abdomen and under tail-coverts, the lower flanks and thighs light 

 brown with a yellow tinge ; wings as in the male. 



Young. Above like the female ; below light ash-brown. 



Distribution. Eastern Cape Colony to the east of Port Eliza- 

 beth. It has been recorded from Grahamstown, King William's 

 Town, East London and other localities. In Natal it is abundant 

 in the neighbourhood of Durban, Pinetown and elsewhere near the 

 coast, but becomes rarer further inland ; it ranges into Zululand, 

 Swaziland, the Transvaal and Portuguese East Africa, and extends 

 to Lake N 'Garni, but its presence in Damara or Great Namaqua 

 Land is doubtful. 



Habits. This species is probably the commonest Weaver Bird 

 in the lower districts of Natal and Zululand. Like H. velatus it is 

 of a very social nature, remains in flocks all the year round and 

 breeds in colonies, often covering several adjacent trees with its 

 nests. These resemble those of H. velatus in being kidney-shaped 

 with an opening below, but as far as I have observed they are never 

 built among reeds, but invariably suspended from the outer twigs of 

 a tree or bush, and preferably over water. The nests are roughly 

 woven out of long green grass-stems, and, since the introduction of 

 the Australian Blue Gum and Black Wattle into Natal, are in- 

 variably thickly lined with the long narrow leaves of these trees. 

 Although the nests of this species are usually constructed without 

 any projecting entrance neck, one is occasionally added, and in the 

 Museum at Grahamstown is a nest ascribed to this bird with a 



