736 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
Coliuspasser macroura (Gmelin). Yellow-mantled Black Weaver 
Loxia macroura Gmelin, Linné’s Syst. Nat., ed. 18, vol. 1, pt. 2, p. 845, 1788: Senegal, Whidah 
country. 
Length 8 inches; male with lesser wing-coverts and back between shoulders bright yellow; rest 
of the plumage black, the greater wing-coverts edged with brownish white; a small concealed white 
spot is present in the center of the breast; neck feathers form a short outstanding ruff. Female, 
streaked brownish yellow. Senegambia to Angola. 
In many of its habits this handsome weaver reminds one of a grackle. It 
comes familiarly about the edges of villages walking with a grackle-like waddle 
on the bare ground. It is curiously solitary in disposition, the birds one sees 
being almost always lone males, and though we made some effort to secure 
a female at Gbanga where it was not uncommon among the extensive rice- 
fields, we did not see two birds of a pair together at any time. Biuttikofer 
also speaks of it at Robertport, as seen alone or in pairs with the young, and 
records specimens from the Junk River, Schieffelinsville and Marshall, as well 
as from the reedy jungles of the Sulymah River. It probably nests in open 
grassy marshes as our Redwings do; for on September 19 at Gbanga, Whitman 
and I saw an adult male carry a strip of grass to a nest he had started in a low 
clump of grass by a brook in an open marsh. After we had examined the few 
interwoven strands he came back at once, worked upon it briefly, and again 
flew off. He had a small part of a green basket outlined. Nothing was seen 
of a female at this time. On the ground this species both walks or makes short 
hops and when perched will open the wings and tail and shut them with a quick 
movement. Its usual perch is the summit of some low tree or bush. It seems 
to be of general distribution in more open situations, but we did not find it 
common anywhere. 
Coliuspasser concolor concolor (Cassin). Long-tailed Black Weaver 
Vidua concolor Cassin, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1848, p. 66: no locality. 
Size of a song sparrow, but with a very long tail in the male, the tail-feathers about twice as 
long as the length of head and body; entire plumage black, wing-coverts, secondaries, and under 
tail-coverts narrowly edged with whitish; iris red. Female of normal form, sparrow-like in color, 
streaked olive buff and black above, throat yellowish with fine streaks, belly whitish. Gambia to 
Angola and the Lake region. 
Apparently there is no previous record of this bird from Liberia, but we 
found it common in the interior near the eastern border, as at Gbanga, in open 
cleared country, grown up with rank grass or in the fields of tall rice. Nearer 
the coast it seems to be absent from the cleared areas though across the border 
in Sierra Leone, Biittikofer (1892, pp. 14, 28) found it in the ‘‘cane jungles”’ 
on the Sulymah River, in September, October, and November. At Gbanga, 
on our arrival in early September, the males were already in breeding plumage, 
though one shot September 8 had the tail still incompletely grown. On Sep- 
tember 14 a large flock was seen there consisting of adult, males, adult females, 
and a number of immature males, the last still in the dull plumage of the fe- 
male type. They probably do not acquire full black breeding dress with the 
