ON THE BIRD LIFE IN NORTHERN NIGERIA 33 



who make constant raids upon the crops, picking and 

 steahng from the ripening millet and doing an incalculable 

 amount of damage. 

 I think the worst 

 offender in this 

 respect is the car- 

 dinal weaver {Quelia 

 cardinalis). 



To drive off the 

 marauders the 

 natives erect among 

 the crops a rude 

 platform of poles, on 

 the top of which a 

 boy sits shouting 

 and pulhng a rope 

 hung with old tins 

 and pieces of metal. 



On waste land 

 which once bore 



crops but now is overgrown, flocks of waxbills {Estrelda) 

 pick up a living, creeping about amongst the weeds Hke little 

 mice. 



Scattered here and there are tall s;um-trees from the 

 topmost twigs of which are suspended the nests of the widow 

 weaver {Vidua princi'palis). In the breeding-season the 

 males are remarkably picturesque in their plumage of black 

 and white, with tails sometimes a foot long. It is amusing to 

 watch one of these birds in flight from one point to another ; 

 he really looks as if he would never get there, so weighed down 



II c 



TAB BIRD-.SCARER 



