124 PLOCEID.E QUELEA 



turns upon it, fiercely chattering, and does its utmost to drive it 

 away ; if successful, it returns quietly to work ; still, however, 

 warning off all visitors with its wings." According to Dr. Euss, in 

 confinement the male of this species is the principal nest-builder, the 

 hen only joining in the work when the nest is nearly completed. 

 The nest is finished in seven or eight days, and from three to seven 

 eggs are laid. Incubation lasts fourteen days. When pursuing 

 the hen the cock cries " shack, schak, schak ; " when alarmed it 

 utters a sparrow-like monosyllabic note ; the ordinary call-note 

 being a softer " tek." 



66. Quelea quelea russi. Euss' Weaver. 



Ploceus russi, Finscli. Gefied. Welt, 1877, p. 317. 



Quelea russi, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii, p. 260, pi. x, fig. 6 (1890); 



Butler, Foreign Finches, p. 316, pi. (1894) ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 26 



(1896). 



Description. Adult male. Similar to the adult male of Quelea 

 quelea, but the black mask of the latter is, in Quelea quelea russi, 

 yellowish-buff. 



Length 4*75 ; wing 2-70 ; tail 1-80; tarsus 0-75; culmen 0.55. 



Note. Adult males of Quelea quelea, with black masks, after 

 being kept in confinement for some years, from age, ill-health, or 

 improper feeding, occasionally lose their black face markings and 

 fade into the plumage of 0. quelea russi, which they retain. 



Distribution. Natal (Pinetown) ; Eastern Transvaal, common ; 

 Bogos Land, July (Jesse). 



Habits. Dr. Butler writes regarding Euss' Weaver : " In habits 

 it exactly corresponds with the commoner species, building precisely 

 in the same way and defending its nest just as Q. quelea does. I 

 have found it equally hardy and enduring. I purchased a male of 

 this species from Mr. Abrahams' some five or six years ago, and 

 turned it into my Weaver aviary ; it moults regularly and consorts 

 with the Eed-beaked species, chasing the hens and quarrelling with 

 the cocks in the noisy but harmless fashion of Q. quelea. I have 

 not the slightest doubt that, under suitable conditions, the two 

 species would freely interbreed, and it is not improbable that e 

 mules would prove fertile." 



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