no


say in several crowds, as in their case the obliteration of angles

cannot be allowed to go too far without undesirable and often

disastrous results ; such differences of habit as there might

naturally be between the various occupants of each aviary

consequently rather tend to disappear.


Among seed-eating birds, a noteworthy peculiarity is the

wonderful strength of constitution of the Weavers. A dead

Weaver is almost as uncommon as a dead donkey. I have always

been inclined to attribute this largely to their living mainl}^ on

canary seed, of which they eat fully four times as much as

they do of millet ; Indian millet they seem hardly to touch,

though they certainly are fond of the spray form. If this is so,

however, whr is the mortality among the closely related

Whydahs, which also live mainly on canary seed, so much

greater ? It is true it is chiefly the Pintailed and Paradise

Whydahs that I have found difficult to keep, the Pintails going

off without any apparent cause, and the Paradise cocks never

surviving their second moult out of colour (the hens are hardy

enough) ; but moulting with them is hardly a more severe

operation than it is with many of the Weavers whose health is

hardly ever affected by it, and the Red-collared and Yellow-

backed Whydahs moult without difficulty.


It has been suggested that Weavers owe their longevity in

confinement to their never, or very rarely, attempting to breed,

and this is probabl}^ the correct explanation. Out of a fairly

large number of species, I have only once had a nest of the

Orange Weaver ; one young one was hatched but not reared.

My cock Oryx is of a decidedly amatory disposition, but always

seledls as the object of his affections a hen Orange or Napoleon

Weaver, both of which treat his advances with undisguised

aversion ; his own hen he entirely negle(5ts.


While on the subject of Weavers, has it ever been

remarked that the species in which the cock is mainly black in

summer plumage are the earliest to come into colour ? I have

at present Pyrotnelaiia capensis in full colour, and Urobrachya

axillaris and bocagii nearly so, though strangely P. c. minor is

still in its winter plumage. Of those in which red or yellow

predominates, Foudia viadagascariensis, Nesacanthis emine^itissima

and Ploceus atrigida are half in colou.r, but no other species has

commenced the change yet. The Combassou seems most ir-

regular in this respect ; my solitary cock has been in full colour

for twelve months since he first came into colour as a young bird.

Of the Whydahs, the Red-collared Whydah {Penthelria ardens)



