The Brcediii^i oj flic Tnlia Weaver. 
297 
adult hen. but, I fancy that the buff eyebrow streak on one 
was more pronounced than on the other. Probably this would 
be the male. On my return from my holiday at the end of 
the month I found that one bird had fallen a victim to the 
attack of a pnir of Snffron Finches, and that the other had 
grown u]i nicely and was looking after itself. 
I also found that the parents were again sitting, this 
time in a shrub and in quite a different type of nest. Instead 
of being domed, it was the shape of a deep and narrow cup, 
th3 eggs being plainly visible and (|uite exposed to the ele- 
ments. Whereas in llieir first nest they were invisible to a 
person standing directly in front, and I had to pack them up 
in the nest, so as to get them to show in the photo. This 
tim ^ three eggs were laid, but one was much smaller than the 
others and proved to be infertile. On Sept. ist two yo'ang 
were hntrhcd, and in t!ic fine weather we were then experi- 
encing grew apace. The nest was cpiitc close to the door 
of the flight and the hen was consequently driven off many times 
a day by passers by, and. I ;-hould not have been surprised if 
she had failed to hatch her eggs, as a Napoleon Weaver near 
the other aviary door twice failed to bring off any young 
from thi:. reason. On the 14th the young being fully feath- 
ered I got a photo of them, and the ne.xt day they left the 
nest, which the cock promptly demolished, as appears to be 
the custom uith most Weavers, as soon as the young birds 
ha\e left, or their eggs have been taken. 
P. taha is a South .African species and 1 doubt if 
its range extends far enough to reach the habitat of P. afra. 
Should it do so, I should think it extremely likely that the 
two varieties would interbreed. I shall try and get a hybrid 
from them in these aviaries next season. Since writing the 
above ihey have again nested. This time in a laurel and 
within I 8 inches of the nest of an Orange Weaver. This, of 
course^ led to fighting and one morning I found both nests 
and their contents on the ground. With reference to the 
Tahas hybridizing it is interesting to note that I have a young 
hybrid from a Taha cock, and an unnamed hen, now, Oct- 
ober 1 5th, lour days old. 11 reared, I shall hope to send 
further particulars to "B.N," later on. 
