PLOCEIDJ3 V1DUA 151 



Distribution. From the neighbourhood of King William's Town 

 in Eastern Cape Colony, to the eastward through Natal, Zululand, 

 the Eastern Transvaal and Mosambique to Abyssinia; and from 

 thence, through the valley of the White Nile, to Senegambia. It is 

 not uncommon in some parts of Natal and the Eastern Transvaal, in 

 the latter country in the valleys of the Limpopo and Sabi Rivers, 

 and on the line of the Pretoria and Delagoa Bay Eailway. 



Vidua paradisea. 



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Habits. This species, nowhere very abundant in South Africa, 

 is still not rare in some parts of Natal and the Eastern Transvaal, in 

 rather open "bush-veldt " ; localities in which little oases of grass 

 are more or less surrounded by thorny bushes. The handsome 

 cock, in spring and summer, is fond of perching on a prominent 

 bush, from which he takes short undulating flights, returning 

 invariably to the same perch. Occasionally he will hover for a few 

 seconds over the grass in which one of his little brown mates is 

 hidden, for he has many, from ten to fifty or more. At short 

 intervals he utters a flute-like note, and now and then a few bars of 

 his love song. When at rest the longest tail feathers are allowed 

 to hang down, but in flight they are carried horizontally. Like 

 the other Widow Birds this species feeds almost entirely on grass- 

 seeds. The change of plumage, from winter to spring livery, in the 

 male is completed in about six weeks. I have never been able to 

 find the nest of this species, nor, so far as I have been able to 

 ascertain, has anyone been more fortunate in this respect than my- 

 self. Dr. Buss has, however, succeeded in getting it to breed in 

 confinement, by turning a cock with three hens into a large room. 

 In November a sort of double nest was built on the wire bottom of 

 a high hanging cage. One nest was shaped like a baker's oven, 

 roofed over and neatly rounded ; the other was a flat and loosely 

 constructed hollow. The first nest, when examined, contained 

 three dead young ones, the other a single living one, which was 

 fed by two females. The male did not trouble himself about either 

 the nest or young. 





