All rights reserved . September, 191 5. 
BIRD NOTES: 
THE — 
JOURNAL OF THE FOREIGN BIRD CLUB 
Breeding of the Red-collared Whydah 
( Penthetria ardens). 
Bv W. Shore-Bailv. 
This handsome Whydah has already been bred in 
captivity, but I understand that very few details of the episode 
were obtainable, so our Editor has asked me to let him have 
a short account of the operations of my birds. 
This pair of birds came into my possession in rather 
a curiou; manner and I had better recount the details. In the 
a.iiumii o! 1913, Focklemann advertised some Gold-collared 
Paradise Whydahs at 75. per pair, so I instructed him to send 
me two pairs. On their arrival I found that three of them 
were identical with the Paradise Whydahs I already possessed, 
but the other one was decidedly darker and larger. On coming 
into colour in the spring this bird developed the fan-tail and 
red-collar of Penthetria ardens. All last season he remained 
a bachelor and was a bit of a nuisance, as he chased the other 
Whydah and Weaver hens continuously, and, I think, pre- 
vented some of them from nesting. 
This year I turned him into an aviary containing some 
Paradise Whydahs, two pairs of Yellow Weavers, and three 
cock Crimson-crowned Weavers. For these last Mr. Allen 
Silver kindly procured me a hen last December, which ultim- 
ately proved to be a hen I'led-collared Whydah, or this story 
may never have been written. On introducing this bird into 
the aviary both the Weavers and the Whydah showed her con- 
siderable attention. In fact they gave her no rest. In the 
middle of June I noticed that the supposed hen Crimson- 
crowned W'eaver looked like nesting, but I never at any time 
saw her carrying nesting materials. On July ist I saw that 
her tail was carried very much to one side, as if she were 
sittmg in a nest a size or two too small for her, so I decided 
