THE GOLDEN WEAVER-BIRD. 
363 
upper tail-coverts bright yellow ; wings and tail brown margined with 
yellowish white. 
Bill black, the underside of the lower mandible dark horn ; inside of the 
mouth flesh -colour ; iris brown ; eyelids grey ; legs pinkish flesh-colour ; 
claws horn-colour. 
Female in summer and both sexes in winter. Whole lower plumage, with 
the cheeks and a supercilium, rusty, paling on the abdomen ; upper plumage 
brown, with broad yellowish-brown margins; tail and wings brown, 
margined with yellowish white. 
Bill fleshy brown, dark on the upper and pale on the lower mandible ; 
other parts as above. 
Length 5*7 inches, tail 2*3, wing 2 '7, tarsus '8, bill from gape '55. The 
female is rather smaller. 
The bird figured by Sparrmann (Mus. Carls, iii. pi. 71) cannot possibly 
refer to this species. The plate represents a bird with the upper plumage 
green and with the forehead, cheeks and lower plumage yellowish. 
Lesson^s description is not good, but it obviously refers to the present 
species. His bird, moreover, came from Java, where no other Weaver-bird 
of the colour described by him exists. 
I have compared Burmese birds with others from J ava and find them to 
be identical. 
The Golden Weaver-bird is of rather local distribution in Burmah, being 
found only in that portion of the Pegu Division which lies between the 
Irrawaddy and Sittang rivers. It inhabits grassy plains and paddy-land 
and is never found in hilly country. 
Mr. Blanford met with it at Mandelay, nearly 300 miles above the 
frontier at Thayetmyo. 
This bird is found in Siam and Cochin China and also in the islands of 
Java and Lombock. 
The stronghold of the Golden Weaver-bird lies in the large plains of 
Southern Pegu. Here it is extremely abundant. In the winter these 
birds associate with Bayas and Striated Weaver-birds and feed on the ripening 
paddy. In the summer months they break up into smaller groups and 
keep apart from the other species. They prefer grass-land to any other, 
but a few may often be seen even in gardens. The nesting-season com- 
mences at the approach of the rains. The nest is a cylindrical structure 
made entirely of grass with an opening at the side. The exterior of the 
nest, instead of being smooth as in the nests of the other Weaver-birds, is 
very rough, consisting of a series of loops and sharp angles. It is attached 
to several stalks of elephant-grass, by which it is supported. I have occa- 
sionally seen these birds select a prickly tree and cover it with their nests 
but this is the easel think only when elephant -grass is scarce. During the 
breeding-season they seem devoid of fear and place their nests in the most 
