HUNTING ON THE SIMBA RIVER 249 
one eye to spare for unknown feathered objects, and the 
following notes may interest. 
* <*One small species specially attracted attention by its 
strangely vibrant flight, producing a rattling sound as 
of some insect. This was a bush-lark (Mirafra Jischeri), 
and the curious vibrant rustle is a seasonal sign, pro¬ 
duced by the rapid clapping of its short rounded 
wings beneath the body as the bird shoots upwards 
in spiral flight. The effect is remarkable enough even 
in March, but during the breeding season (November) 
this singular “drumming” is audible up to hundreds 
of yards. 
A pair of bishop-birds (Pyromelana sundevcdli). 
Gorgeous in orange-red, with velvety-black points and golden-brown mantle. 
Another small bird of brilliant canary-like yellow 
also shoots up in air displaying gorgeous hues in the sun¬ 
light, but without the accompanying vibration. This is 
one of the infinite family of weaver-finches, Hyphantornis 
subaurea by name. An even more brilliantly-coloured 
weaver was also common along the river, a bird of bright 
gamboge with orange head —Xanthophilus bojeri. 
Most of the gaily-plumaged finches one sees prove to 
be either weavers or their cousins, the bishop-birds; yet, 
in the reverse, many of this extensive family are quite 
dull in colours—as, for example, the social weaver-finch, 
commonest of them all. The massed nests of these latter, 
hundreds under one roof, fill whole trees; others, as 
