414 NOTES ON SOME EAST AFRICAN BIRDS 
side the hut occupied by my boy, on having these nests 
pointed out to him, he insisted they were the work of insects, 
and would not believe them to be the work of birds till he saw 
the eggs. Certainly at a little distance they appeared as a 
cobwebby mass. 
NOTES OF INTEREST ON SOME EAST 
AFRICAN BIRDS 
By Y. G. L. van Someken, M.B.O.U. 
The following observations may be of interest to fellow- 
workers in African Ornithology. 
Quelea aethiojpica, var. intermedia . — The females of this 
species when coming into full plumage assume a pale cadmium 
yellow bill, not wax-red as in the males. 
Vidua serena . — Out of a large series of thirty live birds 
collected in January of this year, only seven turned out to be 
females. All the birds were alike in plumage until April, 
when the males moulted, assuming the typical black and white 
plumage, while the seven females took on a more sober plumage, 
being much darker on the back than formerly, and much more 
ochraceous sandy on the lower surface, the bills turning from 
vermilion wax-red to dark brownish horn or red-brow T n with 
black culmen. 
Coturnix delegorguii . — The female of a pair, which have 
been kept apart from other Quails and were living in a run with 
insect-eating birds, has laid up to date 112 eggs. She com- 
menced laying December 20, 1913. The eggs were not removed 
unless there were more than sixteen in the nest, and then 
twelve were always left to induce the bird to brood, but this 
she refuses to do. The series has been preserved and shows 
a great variation in colouration, size, and shape, but uniform 
in shell density. 
