222 Mr. W. L. Sclater on Birds collected 
female but ashy grey below; a few bright yellow feathers 
are beginning to appear; another example shews small black 
feathers on the throat pushing up through the pale yellow, 
while the yellow-edged black feathers on the back which 
form the “spotted back 33 of the adult are beginning to 
appear. One killed on August 31st is in full breeding 
plumage. Young birds of both sexes have only the throat 
pale yellow, the rest of the under parts dull white. I cannot 
distinguish the females of H. nigriceps and H. spilonotm 
with certainty, except that the lower mandible of the former 
appears to be a good deal paler. 
[“ Umdwesa” of Zulus. 
The Spotted-backed Weaver was noted from Zululand, 
the North-Eastern Transvaal, and the Inhambane district 
of Portuguese East Africa. It is usually seen throughout 
the year in flocks, often of considerable numbers, which 
frequent cultivated lands. It is a noisy bird, keeping up a 
continual chatter or uttering a rasping sort of “song”. 
It w r as breeding in numbers at Woodbush, fixing the 
nest at the tip of an overhanging branch of a tree usually 
over water, often in quite inaccessible situations ; unfor¬ 
tunately none of the nests that I was able to reach contained 
eggs. 
The soft parts are :— 
. Irides rich orange-red ; bill black ; legs and toes horn- 
brown. 
$ . Irides yellow ; bill, legs and toes horn-coloured.] 
IIyphantornis tahatali. 
Hyphantornis shelleyi Sharpe, Stark & Sclater, Bds. S. Afr. 
i. p. 62. 
Ploceus auricapillus Sw., Beichenow, Vog. Afr. iii. p. 79. 
Tv. Klein Letaba, Aug., Sept. (4) ; P. Tete, Sept. (1). 
The type of Ploceus tahatali , renamed and figured sub¬ 
sequently by Sir Andrew Smith in the ‘ Illustrations of the 
Zoology of South Africa/ Aves, pi. 103, is preserved in the 
British Museum ; it was procured in winter at Kurrichane, 
and is without doubt the same as the bird commonly known 
as H . shelleyi. 
