66 ANIMAL LIFE IN AFRICA 



and to attain a lower level simply let themselves drop 

 straight down, the strongly recurved claws gripping the 

 coat at the desired spot. 



The species met with in the Sabi-Olifants district of 

 the north-eastern Transvaal is the Red-Billed, and in my 

 experience it is equally, if not even more addicted to 

 digging holes in donkeys than its yellow-billed cousin. 



WEAVER BIRDS. These interesting little birds are 

 closely allied to the finches. Many of the species are 

 very brightly coloured, and most are social in habit, 

 building colonies of cunningly woven nests, which are 

 suspended from reeds or branches. 



The Masked Weaver Bird builds every year in great 

 numbers near the Sabi. About October, their neat 

 kidney-shaped nests may be seen swinging in hundreds, 

 and in all stages of construction, from the ends of 

 reeds and willowy branches, while the busy owners, in 

 their handsome yellow and black uniforms, flit to and 

 fro with much cheerful chirping and chattering. They 

 are dreadful little pests to growing grain. If the nests 

 should be destroyed the birds will build new ones 

 and lay again, up to two or three times. The eggs 

 are of several different colours, some pale blue, some 

 spotted, others nearly pure white, and they also vary 

 in size. 



The young seem all to be fledged by the beginning of 

 March, and I have known them to leave the nests at 

 least a month earlier. 



The Buffalo Weaver bird is a large dark-coloured bird 

 which builds a big rough nest in which several pairs of birds 

 have lodgings of one compartment each. These nests are 

 often built in trees in the midst of a colony of masked 

 weaver birds. The whole community must have rather 

 an anxious time occasionally, as several snakes, notably 



