70 PLOCEID^E SITAGRA 



water, but just as often over dry ground. If unmolested they prefer 

 a tree standing close to a house as a nesting site. 



The nests are compactly woven with coarse grass or strips of 

 reeds and sedge, the interior being warmly lined with fine grass- 

 stems as well as the flowering tops. The entrance to the nest is 

 from below, a narrow bar at the inner extremity dividing it from 

 the interior and preventing the eggs or young from falling out in 

 windy weather. The eggs, four or five in number, are of a uniform 

 deep blue. They measure 0-90 x 0-66. 



33. Sitagra capensis caffra. Eastern Gape Weaver Bird. 



Icterus caffer, Lichtenstein, Verz. Doubl. p. 19 (1823). 

 Icterus olivaceus, Hahn, Vog. aus Asien, Lief. 6, pi. 4 (1822). 

 Hyphantornis olivaceus, Holub arid Pelzeln, Orn. Siidafr. p. 113 



(1882). 

 Hyphantornis aurifrons, Gurney and Ayres, Ibis, 1878, p. 296 ; 1880, 



p. 105. 

 Hyphanturgus olivaceus, Sharpe, ed. Layard's B. S. Afr. pp. 433, 



846 (1884) partim ; Ayres, Ibis, 1885, p. 344, 1886, p. 290. 

 Sitagra capensis, subspecies A. S. caffra, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii, p. 431 



(1890). 

 Xanthophilus caffer, Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 38 (1896). 



Description. Adult male. Eesembles the male of S. capensis, 

 but is smaller and brighter ; the head, sides of face and throat are 

 also tinged with chestnut-red. 



Iris reddish-brown ; bill black ; feet pale yellowish. 



Length 6-80; wing 3-60 ; tail 2-20 ; tarsus 1-05 ; culmen 0-95. 



Adult female. Eesembles the female of S. capensis in colour, 

 but is smaller. 



Iris buff-yellow; upper mandible light brown; lower, straw- 

 yellow ; feet light brown. 



Length in flesh 7'50 ; of skin 6-40 ; wing 3-45 ; tail 2-10; tarsus 

 95 ; culmen 0-90. 



Distribution. From the neighbourhood of Port Elizabeth 

 throughout the greater part of Eastern Cape Colony, thence through 

 Natal, Zululand, the Eastern Transvaal and Portuguese East 

 Africa into Ehodesia, ranging as far north as the Zambesi Eiver 

 according to Dr. Holub. 



Habits. Very like those of the larger S. capensis ; the eastern 

 race, however, appears to feed to a much greater extent upon 



AjU^fiAAr 



