﻿NEST OF PLOCEUS ICTEROCEPHALUS. 



189 



(162.) Another very curious fabric, in this order of 

 bird architecture, is exhibited in a nest now before us 

 (fig. 89). It was brought from Southern Africa, together 

 with the male, female, and eggs of a species of Ploceus, or 



weaver, which we have named, P. icterocephalus.* The 

 nest is somewhat kidney shaped, seven inches long, and 

 four and a half broad : it is attached to a very slender 

 branch, from which there are four other young shoots, 

 which serve as so many holds for its support, and to 

 which it is firmly fixed by bendingsof strong grass leaves. 

 The whole is very compactly made of the same mate- 

 rials, interlaced most ingeniously, and far more firmly, 

 than what is seen in the chaffinch or other of our most 

 skilful builders : the lining are the heads or panicles of 

 the grasses, thus uniting softness and coolness, the latter 

 being an obvious advantage in so sultry a climate. The 

 aperture is lateral, near, but not upon, the top, so that 

 it serves the purpose of a window to the inmates ; who 

 are sheltered overhead by the convex top of the nest. 



* Male. Above, yellowish olive, brownish in the middle of each fea- 

 ther ; beneath, full, deep yellow ; head, sides, ears, chin, and throat rufous 

 or jbuff yellow, blending into the adjacent colours ; tail, quills, and wing 

 covers brown, the two latter with light yellow margins ; tail very short, 

 even ; bill black ; legs pale. 



Female. Head, above, and all the upper plumage olive, the feathers 

 brownish in the middle ; under parts from the chin to the tail covers, and 

 margins of the wing feathers, pale yellow ; bill and legs pale. Eggs y 

 lengthened oval, entirely blue, unspotted. 



Obs. Total length seven and a half inches : bill, from the gape, one ; 

 from the front, seven teen-twentieths; from the nostrils, seven-tenths ; 

 wings, three and three-quarters : tarsus, one : tail, from the base, two and 

 a half; beyond the wings, one ; first quill very short and spurious ; second, 

 one-tenth shorter than the third and fourth, which are the longest. 



