xxx TAILS AND WINGS AS NUPTIAL LIVERY 371 



feet move up and down rapidly. As the bird springs 

 up and down the whole plumage is puffed out. The 

 dancing-rings are about two feet in diameter. There is 

 a tuft in the centre, and the grass around it is broken 

 quite close to the ground. There may be a score or 

 more of these dancing-rings in an acre of grass land. 

 These birds associate with the Bishop finches (called 

 dhurra birds in the Sudan), which, at the breeding 

 season, blaze out in bright red and lovely orange feathers. 



There is some confusion in regard to the names of 

 these birds. Ornithologists call them Whydah birds, 

 after a place of the same name on the West Coast of 

 Africa ; they are called weaver finches, because they 

 construct complex nests, and the Portuguese named 

 them widow birds on account of their sombre plumage 

 and long tails ; certainly D. jacksoni resembles a 

 sparrow in widow's weeds. 



There is an interesting species, V. paradisea, in 

 which during the breeding season the webs of the 

 middle pair of rectrices widen greatly and the shafts 

 twist in such a manner that their inferior surfaces 

 become opposed vertically ; the next pair are produced 

 to the length of about a foot and are falciform. The 

 bird being no bigger than a canary, it seems, when 

 flying, as if the bird is attached to the tail, rather than 

 the tail to the bird. 



The Coly or Mouse-bird is very common in the 

 Ethiopian Region, and is sure to attract attention. 

 It has a pretty top-knot and a long narrow tail. 

 The legs are red and the toes have slender, prehensile 

 claws, all directed forward, but the hallux and the 

 outer toe can be turned backwards. The peculiar 

 redness of the legs can only be appreciated in the 

 living bird. It is curious to watch a coly alight on 

 the trunk, or branch, of a tree and then creep through 

 the foliage like a mouse with the whole of its metatarsus 

 applied to the branch. This bird, like the tits, often 

 hangs head downwards. The coly prefers thickets to 



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