42 
Mr. G. L. Bates— Field-Notes on the 
The Bulu name of all species of Malimbus means “Weaver 
of the vine-palms, - ” from the favourite nesting-place of many 
of them. 
1329. Ploceus bicolor. 
Beich. Y. A. iii. p. 34. 
Sycobrotus bicolor Sharpe, Ibis, 1908, p. 349. 
A common inhabitant of the smaller sort of second-growth 
forest that springs up on land once cleared and then left for 
a few years—a sort of forest found very extensively in the 
Ja district. The bird was never seen at Efulen, where the 
primeval forest prevails. It seeks its insect-food in the tree- 
tops or the under bushes and brush, in the dry season making 
a great rattling among the dry leaves of the underbrush 
when foraging. Sometimes I have thought, from the 
beating and rattling noise I heard, that some antelope or pig 
must be walking about in a thicket, but have found nothing 
but one of these yellow birds. This species has a little song 
of a high pitch, ending in a long drawn out “ chee-e-e ! ” 
which sounds rather sweet. This it is continually singing. 
A male not breeding has been shot while uttering the 
little song ; and two female specimens, if my boys, who shot 
them, may be believed, were also singing when shot. 
Many of my specimens have been shot at their nests. The 
pair (Nos. 1562 and 1563) were killed at one shot, one being 
inside the nest and the other perched at the entrance. The 
nest is of the ordinary Weaver shape, i. e. a globe with a 
downward-pointing entrance or vestibule on one side, the 
latter short, not a long tube as in nests of some kinds of 
Malimbus . It is woven of small weed-stems and tendrils, 
and is rather bulky and rough. Nests of this bird are 
most frequently found in a kind of small thorny tree 
called “ bongo. - ” Probably the thorns or prickles, which 
thickly cover the twigs or leaf-petioles to which the nests are 
attached, afford protection against marauders. 
The eggs, when found in the nests, were two in number, 
and two that I saved measured 20*5 x 14*5 mm. and 
20 x 14 mm. 
