120 BIRD ARCHITECTS 



between a single pair of reeds. The nest is shaped like a 

 pouch with a domed opening at the side near the top, and 

 is usually constructed of strips torn from the leaves of the 

 reeds. It lays three or four eggs of a beautiful deep greenish- 

 blue colour and rather pyriform in shape. To see several 

 hundreds of these birds flitting about the reeds is a glorious 

 sight, the habit they have of fluffing out the feathers giving 

 a brilliance and intensity of colour to the vivid red and glossy 

 black, which the prepared skin exhibits but little trace of. 



Its smaller congener, the Golden Bishop (P. taha), is not 

 nearly so common. In its beautiful golden-yellow and 

 glossy black plumage it looks like a ball of gold as it flits 

 over the marshy, weed-covered patches it delights to make 

 its home in, fluffing up its feathers and emitting its grating, 

 chirp-like call. It builds a similar nest to that of the Eed 

 Bishop, constructing it, however, chiefly of fine grass, and 

 placing it amongst the rank weeds. It lays four to six eggs 

 of a white ground colour spotted with tiny dots of very 

 dark brown. This species is not found in the Gape Colony. 

 It is somewhat " local " in distribution, appearing in certain 

 localities in fair numbers one season and being almost un- 

 known there the next. 



The Cape or Yellow Bishop-Bird (P. capensis) and its 

 two sub-species are larger birds than the Golden Bishop, 

 and differ in having the top of the head black instead of 

 this region being yellow, as is the case with the Golden 

 Bishop. The sub-species (P. c. approximans), inhabiting 

 Eastern Cape Colony, northwards, is smaller than the 

 western form, while the northern form is intermediate in 

 size between the two, and has, moreover, black thighs 

 (P. c. xanfhomelcena). 



The males of this genus change their summer plumage 

 by abrasion into a dull brown colour during the winter 



