70 How to Sex Cage Birds. 



back of nock, rump, and upper tail-coverts, and mottled with dark 

 centres to the feathers of the mantle ; eyebrows, sides of head, and 

 the throat pale yellow ; breast white, mottled with yellow ; under 

 tail-coverts pale yellow; bill blackish " (Shelley's Birds of Africa, 

 vol. iv. part 2, p. 397). 



Black-fronted Weaver {Jlyphantornis velatus). 



Captain Shelley does not describe the female, but I believe I have 

 a living example of this or a closely related species exhibiting the 

 usual characteristic Sedge-Warbler type of coloration ; Stark and 

 Sclater say that it "resembles the male in winter, but the lower 

 back, rump, and upper tail-coverts arc ash-brown instead of olive- 

 yellow " {Birds of South Africa, vol. i. j>. 59). 



Rufous-necked Weaver (Hyphantomis cucullatus). 



The female, according to Shelley, differs in having the "forehead, 

 crown, and upper tail-coverts olive-yellow; back and sides of neck 

 and the back ashy brown, with slightly darker brown centres to the 

 feathers of the mantle": wings and tail paler; "ear-coverts shaded 

 with olive; eyebrow, remainder of sides of head, chin, throat, breast, 

 thighs, and under tail-coverts pale yellow, fading into white on the 

 abdomen and flanks. Bill brown, fading into flesh colour on the 

 under half of the lower mandible" (Birds of Africa, vol. iv. 

 part 2, p. 424). 



Black-headed W raver (Hyphantomis tudanocephalus). 



Differs from the male in the uniform yellowish olive of the upper 

 parts : the paler and duller edges of the wing-feathers ; the eyebrows, 

 sides of head, chin, and throat pale yellow ; breast and under tail- 

 coverts white : flanks and thighs somewhat ashy. 



The above are the three species most frequently offered for sale: 

 of others recorded in the Zoological Society's list //. capensis is 

 referred by Dr Sharpe to Sitagra, and by Captain Shelley to 

 Xanthophikis ; II. -per sonata is, according to Shelley, the same as 

 Sitagra luteola ; JI. castaneqfusca is placed by the same author 

 in Cinnamopteryx, II. superciliosus in Pachyphantes, and //. 

 brachyptera in Hyphamturgus. 



Baya Weaver (Ploceus bay a). 



The female is altogether duller than the male, showing none of 

 the blight yellow of that sex and no trace of the black forehead, 

 sides of head, chin, and throat ; the crown is coloured like the back ; 

 there is a pale buttish eyebrow ; the ear-coverts are greyish-brown; 

 the neck, cheeks, breast, and sides arc tawny-bullish ; the chin, throat 

 centre of abdomen and under tail-coverts white. 



Manyar Weaver (Ploceus manyar). 



Jerdon observes that -'the male in winter dress is clad like the 

 female, and has the head brown, streaked like the back, a pale 



