48 
Mr. G. L. Bates— Field-Notes on the 
eating group of Weavers, and not to be placed naturally so 
near to Melanopteryx nigerrimus as it is in the ‘Vogel 
Afrikas/ Nos. 1854 and 1855 were evidently a pair, shot 
together, as so many of my specimens of Malimdms have 
been. No. 2626, the young one, was in company with a 
Malimbus rubricollis in an ejak in the forest. 
Amblyospiza saturata. [Ko-Esong.] 
Sharpe, Ibis, 1908, p. 353. 
This bird I have found only in the Ja district, and there 
only in localities where there are extensive patches of the 
big cane-like grass Fanicum maximum , or “ esong ” in 
Bulu. The Bulu name of this bird is the name of the grass 
combined with ee kos,” meaning “ parrot.” The name 
“ parrot” must be given on account of the big bill of these 
Weavers, or because, when perched, they hold themselves in 
a peculiar parrot-like erect position, made necessary, ap¬ 
parently, by the weight of their bills. Once, while watching 
one of these birds thus perched, I saw it open its mouth and 
heard it sing a pretty little canary-like song, consisting 
of some “cheeps” ending in a trill. 
Though the bird is not very plentiful here, a number of 
its nests have been found and shown to me, mostly by one 
man, who seems to have discovered a place where they 
nest, though they do not, I think, build together in a close 
colony. The nests are large globes, six inches or more in 
diameter, attached by one or both sides to stems of the 
hong grass or to other plant-stems. They are always woven 
entirely of fine shreds resembling flax both in fibre and in 
colour. From what plant the bird gets them I do not know, 
perhaps from the inner stems of the esong also, which the 
bird could bruise and fray out with its strong bill and then 
tear off in fine shreds. The weaving is closer and neater 
than that of most Weavers. In some of the nests the en¬ 
trance is a mere hole in the side of the globe, and the edges 
of the hole have a finished look, all ends being tucked in, 
and a “ selvedge edge ” formed. Seeing such a nest one 
would suppose that it was finished, and that this bird builds 
no vestibule as other Weavers do. But other nests have a 
