The Perching'birds 521 



and when he lifted it out the notes fell like bubbles from the strings. . . . Away he launched, 

 and the meadow is all bespattered with melody." Where rice is extensively cultivated, however, 

 this bird IS by no means so enthusiastically welcomed, causing immense destruction to the 

 standing crops-flocks numbering, it has been said, some millions alighting in the fields and 

 leaving too little grain to be worth the trouble of gathering. 



We pass now to a group of exceedingly interesting bids, some of which are remarkable 

 on account of the beauty of their plumage, others from their wonderful nestin<.-habits The 

 group mcludes many familiar as cage-birds, such as the Long-tailed Widow-birds the Eed- 

 BEAKED Waxbills, Amadavats, Java Sparrow, Gkass-finches, Munias, and so on, all of which 

 are embraced under the general title of Weaver-birds, a name bestowed on account of their 

 peculiar nests. 



PiMto Ijii 1),: R. If. Hhvfddl] 



{]]'ashiiigtoii. 



MEADOW-LAKK (NATURAL SIZE). 



Known also as the Meadow-starling. This bird, a native of the Eastern United States, lias occurred three times in the British Islands, but it is 



doubtful whether these specimens were wild. 



Abundant in Africa, and well rejiresented in South-eastern Asia and Australia, these birds 

 bear a strong family resemblance to the Finches, from which they differ in having ten primary 

 quills in the wings. 



One of the most peculiar is the South Afiican Long-tailed Wiiydah- or Widow-bird. 

 Strikingly coloured, this bird is rendered still more attractive by the extremely elongated tail- 

 feathers, which are many times longer than the body, so long, indeed, as to impede its flight, 

 which is so laboured that children commonly amuse themselves by running the bird down. 

 KafSr children stretch lines coated with bird-lime near the ground across fields of millet and 

 Kaffir corn, and thereby capture many whose tails have become entangled among the threads. 



In brUliancy of coloration the Whydah-birds— for there are several species — are pressed hard 



66 



