XXX TAILS AND WINGS AS NUPTIAL LIVERY 371 
feet move up and down rapidly. As the bird springs 
up and down the whole plumage is puffed out. The 
dancing-rings are about two feet in diameter. There is 
a tuft in the centre, and the grass around it is broken 
quite close to the ground. There may be a score or 
more of these dancing-rings in an acre of grass land. 
These birds associate with the Bishop finches (called 
dhurra birds in the Sudan), which, at the breeding 
season, blaze out in bright red and lovely orange feathers. 
There is some confusion in regard to the names of 
these birds. Ornithologists call them Whydah birds, 
after a place of the same name on the West Coast of 
Africa ; they are called weaver finches, because they 
construct complex nests, and the Portuguese named 
them widow birds on account of their sombre plumage 
and long tails; certainly D. jacksoni resembles a 
sparrow in widow’s weeds. 
There is an interesting species, V. paradisea, in 
which during the breeding season the webs of the 
middle pair of rectrices widen greatly and the shafts 
twist in such a manner that their inferior surfaces 
become opposed vertically ; the next pair are produced 
to the length of about a foot and are falciform. The 
bird being no bigger than a canary, it seems, when 
flying, as if the bird is attached to the tail, rather than 
the tail to the bird. 
The Coly or Mouse-bird is very common in the 
Ethiopian Region, and is sure to attract attention. 
It has a pretty top-knot and a long narrow tail. 
The legs are red and the toes have slender, prehensile 
claws, all directed forward, but the hallux and the 
outer toe can be turned backwards. The peculiar 
redness of the legs can only be appreciated in the 
living bird. It is curious to watch a coly alight on 
the trunk, or branch, of a tree and then creep through 
the foliage like a mouse with the whole of its metatarsus 
applied to the branch. This bird, like the tits, often 
hangs head downwards. The coly prefers thicksets to 
B B 2 
