110 PLOCEID^E SPEEMESTES 



many parts of the Transvaal, but becomes rarer to the north of 

 the Limpopo River, in Matabili and Mashona Lands. 



Habits. These pretty little birds are usually met with in small 

 flocks, but occasionally in single pairs, on open grassy flats. Here 

 they feed on the ground, under the grass, on the fallen seeds. If 

 disturbed they rise suddenly, with a curious metallic " chirp," fly a 

 short distance and settle again directly on the ground without first 

 perching on bushes or weeds. As a rule their flight is rapid and 

 direct, but they sometimes rise with their usual sharp cry and fall 

 again on the spot from which they rose. Mr. T. Ayres gives the 

 following account of the nest, found near Potchefstroom on the 

 30th of April, in the Ibis for 1878, p. 297 : " This pretty little fellow 

 I shot as he rose from the nest, where he had evidently been doing 

 duty for his wife, by sitting on the eggs in her absence. The nest 

 was a very rough structure, placed on the ground amongst the grass 

 and not easily seen, from its being composed of dead blades of 

 grass ; it was lined with a few coarse feathers, and in shape was 

 much like the nests of some of the Sunbirds, with a projecting 

 eave over the entrance, but all very rough. The eggs were five in 

 number and pure white ; length, 0*54; breadth, 0'47. Eggs in the 

 South African Museum at Cape Town are rounded ovates, without 

 gloss, and pure white. They average 0'62 x 0'48. 



Genus V. SPERMESTES. 



Type. 

 Spermestes, Swainson, B. W. Afr. i, p. 201 (1837) ...S. cucullatus. 



Bill short, thick, the culmen rounded, the cutting edge of the 

 mandible nearly straight; the nasal orifice concealed by plumes. 

 Tail short, not as long as the wing, and square. Tarsi scutellated 

 anteriorly, the feet long and slender, the claws long and sharp. 

 Plumage of contrasting colours, more or less black and white. 



Nine species of African Weaver Finches are included in this 

 genus, three ranging into South Africa. Several of them are regularly 

 exported to Europe as cage-birds, and are known to dealers as 

 " Mannikins." They breed freely in confinement. They feed on 

 small seeds, resemble the Finches in their general habits, but build 

 domed nests in bushes and trees, and lay white eggs. 



