40 
The Birds of Gambia. 
When building operations are in progress the banks of the river are 
alive with these birds, all chattering at once, as they fly in and out with 
grass stems, and vie with each other in the actual work of weaving the nests. 
They are in colour from Juh- to December, a few showing few signs 
till about February. When out of colour during the dry season they go 
about in large flocks in the koos-fields, but I think a great many leave the 
country then, returning to the river to breed at the proper season. 
I once had a small Yellow Weaver, much smaller than these birds, 
no larger than a Green Singing Finch. I never found out to what species 
it belonged. 
Hyphantornis vitellinus. HALF-MASKED WEAVER. 
Range. vSeneganibia to N.E. and Equatorial Africa. {Sh.) 
I have seen this bird occasionally among those brought to Dakar (in 
Senegal) by the bird-catchers there, but never to my knowledge in Gambia. 
H. melanocephalns. BLACK-HOODED WEAVER. 
Range. Senegambia to Congo. {Sh.) 
Common in the Gambia. Nest in thorn trees about S-io feet from the 
ground; not usually over water as is the case with Silagra. Very common 
near Bathurst, 
H. hen glint. 
Range. Gambia to the Niger. [Sh.) 
One specimen in the British Museum from the Gambia. I do not 
know the bird here. 
H. ciiaillalus. RUFOUS-NECKED WEAVER. 
Range. Senegambia to Gaboor. [Sh.) 
Our largest Yellow Weaver; very common; nest in the tall Rhun- 
palm trees, the whole top of one of these often being a mass of their untidy 
grass nests. These colonies of nests are generally in or quite near villages, 
where the birds make ver}' noisy neighbours with their constant chattering 
and quarrels over nesting sites and materials. 
One cock I have at home has never lost his colour during the 
four years I have had him. I do not know whether this is the case with 
the other Yellow Weavers.* I cannot remember ever seeing one of these 
in colour during the dry season, but then they are much less common 
here than during the breeding season. My earliest note regarding their 
colour is, " May 30, '07, Albreda, some beginning to show colour ; " and the 
latest, "Jan. '08, Jennak, large flocks of some Hyphautornis, mostly half- 
colour. 
The Yellow Weavers are all knovvn here as " Palm-birds." When fat, 
at harvest-time, they are sometimes eaten, and make splendid "larks" or 
"ortolans" on toast, which ever one likes to call them. They are but 
* All the species of Hy phantom is I have had in my outdoor aviaiy have regularly 
gone out of colour each December.— Ed. 
