224



Capt. B. R. Horsbrugh,



with a large assortment of trap-cages and call-birds and two or

three pots of bird lime. My captures for the day were seventeen

Scaly - feathered Weaver Birds ( Sporopipes

squamij?' 0 ?is), see Stark's Birds of S. Africa ,

page 86, Vol. I., and also a Tit Babbler

(.Parisovia subcoeruletim )


I find 5”. squamifrons a most attractive

little bird in an aviary, but very difficult to

reconcile to captivity. Of the seventeen

I got on this occasion all died except one, which is now in

splendid feather and health, and lives in company with three

others I bought from one of my small collectors. In April last

this little bird was breeding in the bush along the Modder

literally in thousands. In one small acacia, or “ wait-a-bit ,r

thorn about 20 feet high, there were over two hundred nests, five

of us counted to the best.of our ability. All had eggs or newly-

hatched young, and the noise reminded me of cicadas.


We plucked some Guinea Fowl near our camp, and it was

interesting to watch the procession of these little fellows, each

with a big spotted feather in his pink beak, beating with all his

power against the heavy wind that was blowing.


Sporopipes squamifro7is has just bred in my aviary, there

was only one young one reared, which is now flying about with

its parents. It is exactly like them, but has a dull yellow

beak with a black spot on the end of it, and it lacks the shield of

seal}'- feathers on the top of its head, from which the bird takes

its name.


April—the month when this species was breeding in the

open —seems a queer time of the year for building out here ; it

corresponds nearly to October at home and the nights are dis¬

tinctly chilly, but birds in general seem to have no fixed time for

nesting here, and just breed when they feel so inclined, or what

I expect to be the true explanation, when their particular food

is most plentiful.


Some months ago I got a few pairs of the White-browed

Weaver ( Ploceipasser mahali ). Most of these I sent to the Pre¬

toria Zoological Gardens, where they had not been previously

represented I believe, but I kept one pair for myself. I bore



Sporopipes squamifrons,

from B. of S. Africa.



