PLOCEIDJS PHILET^KUS 115 



several waggon-loads of material, and as large as a moderately 

 sized haystack, has been so frequently described and. illustrated by 

 African travellers. 



63. Philetserus socius. Social Weaver Bird. 



Loxia socia, Lath. Ind. Orn. i, p. 381 (1790). 



Philetaerus lepidus, Smith in Charlesw. Mag. 1837, p. 536; id. III. 



Zool. S. Afr., Birds, pi. 8 (1838). 

 Philetserus socius, Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 186 (1867) ; Gurney in 



Andersson's B. Damara Land, p. 167 (1872) ; Holub and Pelzeln, 



Orn. Siidafr. p. 119 (1882). 



Philcetaerus socius, Sharpe, ed. Layard's B. S. Afr. p. 449 (1884). 

 Phiketerus socius, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii, p. 249 (1890) ; Shelley, 



B. Afr. i, p. 27 (1896). 



Description. Adult male. Above brown, the feathers of the 

 nape and upper back edged with buff and with a subterminal 

 margin of black ; rump and upper tail-coverts pale brown, the 

 feathers margined with white ; two centre tail-feathers light brown ; 

 rest of tail-feathers brown externally and at the tips, blackish in- 

 ternally, a spot of white at the end of inner web ; wing-quills 

 brown with light edges ; crown uniform brown ; eyelid white ; 

 lores, feathers in front of eye and fore cheeks, chin and upper 

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

 surface of body pale brown ; the sides of neck with scale-like 

 markings like the back ; a patch of feathers on each side black 

 with whitish margins ; axillaries and under wing -coverts pale 

 brown. 



Iris dark brown ; bill horn-colour ; legs and feet light brown. 



Length 5'50 ; wing 2-90 ; tail 1'75 ; tarsus 0*80 ; culmen 0-50. 



Adult female. Eesembles the male in colour. 



Young. More distinctly mottled above, the feathers edged 

 with greyish-brown ; crown with small spots of black ; the mottling 

 on the sides of body less distinct than in the adults. 



Distribution. From about 20 South Latitude southward 

 to the valley of the Orange Eiver, ranging a few miles south of 

 that river into Cape Colony. Mr. Andersson remarks : " Great 

 Namaqua Land is the head-quarters of this species, and the Orange 

 Eiver is its southern limit ; in Damara Land proper it is of some- 

 what rare occurrence." It is rather a common species in Bechuana 



