394 THE SOCIABLE WEAVER BIRD. 



The color of this bird is very beautiful, and is briefly as follows : 

 The general tint is an extremely dark purplish green, having an al- 

 most metallic glitter in a strong light. The feathers of the shoulders 

 are tipped with buff, and the wing-coverts, together with the quill 

 feathers of the tail and wings, are edged with pale reddish brown. The 

 beak is a fine yellow. The feathers of the upper part of the breast are 

 elongated and pointed. This is the plumage of the adult male, and is 

 not brought to its perfection until three years have elapsed. The first 

 year's bird, before its autumnal moult, is almost wholly of a brownish 

 gray, and after its moult is partly brown and partly purple and green. 

 In the second year the plumage is more decided in its tints, but is va- 

 riegated with a great number of light-colored spots on the under and 

 upper surfaces, and the beak does not attain its beautiful yellow 

 tinge. 



We now arrive at the large and important families of the Finches. 

 In all these birds the bill is conical, short, and stout, sharp at the ex- 

 tremity, and without any notch in the upper mandible. 



The first group of the Finches is composed of a number of species 

 which, although for the most part not conspicuous for either size, beauty 

 of form, or brilliancy of color, are yet among the most remarkable of the 

 feathered tribe, on account of their architectural powers. Dissimilar in 

 shape, form, and material, there is yet a nameless something in the con- 

 struction of their edifices which at once points them out as the workman- 

 ship of the Weaver Birds. Some of them are huge, heavy, and massive, 

 clustered together in vast multitudes and bearing down the branches with 

 their weight. Others are light, delicate and airy, woven so thinly as to 

 permit the breeze to pass through their net-like interior, and dangling 

 daintily from the extremity of some slender twig. Others, again, are 

 so firmly built of flattened reeds and grass-blades that they can be de- 

 tached from their branches and subjected to very rough handling with- 

 out losing their shape, while others are so curiously formed of stiff grass- 

 stalks that their interior is studded with sharp points like the skin of a 

 hedgehog. 



The true Weaver Birds all inhabit the hotter portions of the Old 

 World, the greater number of them being found in Africa, and the re- 

 mainder in various parts of India. 



The Sociable Weaver Bird is found in several parts of Africa, 

 and has always attracted the attention of travellers from the very re- 

 niarkable edifice which it constructs. The large social nests of this 

 bird are so conspicuous as to be notable objects at many miles' dis- 

 tance, and it is found that they generally build in the branches of the 

 giraffe thorn or " kameeldorn," one of the acacia tribe. 



The Sociable AVeaver Bird, which is by some writers termed the 

 " Sociable Grosbeak," in choosing a place for its residence, is careful 



