3 66 



PERCHING BIRDS. 



with their bills, clinging the while to the sides of the cage with their powerful 

 claws. They have a loud churring cry. The adult has the crown of the head 

 and the sides of the neck gamboge-yellow; the nape, back, and rump are 

 lemon-yellow; the back of the neck and shoulders greenish yellow; the wing- 

 feathers a dark purplish brown edged with yellow; the tail olive -brown tinted 

 with yellow ; while the throat and lower-parts are saffron-yellow, 

 paradise whydah With this exclusively African genus (Vidua) of long-tailed and 

 Birds. strikingly-coloured birds we come to the second subfamily, the 

 distinctive characters of which have been already indicated. The paradise- 

 whydah birds, of which there are several species, may be taken to include all 

 those in which the two central pairs of tail-feathers of the males are greatly 

 elongated, although they are frequently subdivided into distinct genera, 

 according as to whether some or all of these feathers are attenuated and 

 wire-like. The long- tailed whydah bird (Vidua pwradisea), represented in 

 the upper part of our coloured Plate, is an inhabitant of South Africa, where 

 it frequents swampy ground and the long reeds about ponds. Its flight is 

 feeble. In the breeding-season especially, when the male has assumed his 

 nuptial livery and long tail-feathers, the flight is so laboured that the children 

 constantly run them down. They are quite unable to fly against the wind, and in 

 rainy weather can hardly be got to move out of the thick bushes in which they 

 conceal themselves. The Kaffir children stretch bird-limed lines across the fields 

 of millet and Kaffir corn, and take great numbers of the males by their tails 

 becoming entangled in the lines. This bird builds its nest in long grass close to 

 the ground, generally placing it in a tussock of herbage, to the blades and stalks 

 of which it is roughly joined. The nest itself is rather a rough structure, composed 

 of fine grass lined with the seed-ends; the opening is at the side. Mr. Bowker 

 states that the average number of females is as fifteen to one male. He adds that 

 the long tail worn by the male in the breeding-season is not an inconvenience ; and 

 the bird never seems to enjoy himself so much as during a high wind in which 

 he shows off to advantage, spreading his tail out like a fan. The male in nuptial 

 plumage is of a general glossy black ; the feathers of the shoulders are fulvous 

 and brilliant crimson, and the tail is enormously developed. The female plumage 

 is of a pale yellowish brown, but the wing-feathers are black with pale yellowish 

 brown edges. 



Nearly the whole of the remaining genera of the subfamily have 

 is op- ir s. ^ e ^ a Q s j lor t er than the wing ; and among these some of the most 

 remarkable are the gorgeously-coloured bishop-birds of Africa, a group of which is 

 depicted in the right lower half of our coloured illustration. These birds have the 

 tail squared, with the two central feathers not markedly produced beyond the rest : 

 while the feathering of the body is soft and velvety ; and there is a distinct winter 

 and summer plumage, in the latter of which a frill is developed round the neck. 

 Among the handsomest of the group is the red bishop-bird, or red Kaffir finch 

 (Pyromelana oryx),oi the Cape Colony, Natal, and the Transvaal. A bird of social 

 habits, gathering together in immense flocks both in winter and summer, which during 

 the latter season appear to consist almost entirely of males in their gaudy red and 

 black plumage, the red bishop-bird breeds in the month of September, constructing 



