6 
BIRDS IN UGANDA FORESTS 
The weaver birds are interesting. Spermospisa rubricapilla 
is to be found in most of the forests in Uganda, I believe, but 
it is not necessarily a forest bird, as it is also to be found in 
patches of thick bush. I was fortunate in obtaining the type 
of the male of this species in the Budongo forest, the bird 
previously being known, I believe, only by the skins of two 
females. I have since obtained it at Mubende and in the 
Mabira forest, and feel sure I have seen some on several other 
occasions. 
It is without doubt a very shy bird and keeps almost 
exclusively to thick undergrowth, and this must be the only 
reason that it is so little known, as its bright red breast is 
very conspicuous. 
Malimbus is represented by rubricollis and malimbicus. 
These are weaver finches. I watched a family party of the latter 
species a short while ago in the Mabira forest. The young 
were in that stage in which they were quite capable of finding 
their food, but at the same time liked to be fed by the old birds. 
At the distance the young birds looked just like the females in 
plumage. They are fascinating birds to watch, quite as much 
at home, while searching for food, clinging to the underside of 
branches as on the top, the bright red head being a very con- 
spicuous object in the dull light of a forest, especially when a 
ray of sun catches it. 
Of Cinnamopteryx I have obtained a pair of tricolor (chestnut 
weaver finch) in the Mabira forest, but the female is identical 
with the description of C. inter scapular is which Shelley con- 
siders may be a black-breasted variety of tricolor. I feel sure 
that my skins are a pair, but they have not yet been sent 
home for identification. 
Orioles are represented by Brachyrhynchus , whose fine notes 
frequently resound throughout the forest. 
Nicator chloris is found in most of the forests. It is a shy 
bird, and I have usually seen it in thick undergrowth. 
In 1907 I obtained a pair of Bleda woosnami (Woosnam’s 
yellow bulbul) in the Budongo forest. This species had only a 
few months previously been found for the first time by the 
Ruwensori Expedition. This forest also produced a specimen 
which, at first, puzzled the authorities at the South Kensington 
