THE BIRDS OF LIBERIA Fon 
long tail-feathers until at least the second year. When in ordinary flight the 
long tail-feathers of the male are held closed together, and apparently have 
enough stiffness so that they do not wave up and down to impede the bird’s 
progress as they do in the small Black and White Wydah, but the flocks, often 
of adult males alone or of both sexes, dash swiftly by in very compact order. 
On September 12, we found a nest of this species, woven among the tops of 
some tall rice-stalks, a little round ball consisting of grass strips and fibers, 
about four feet up in the middle of a large field. It contained two eggs heavily 
speckled with dark on a greenish ground. The female was seen at the nest 
or near it, and in succeeding days on visiting the nest she would slip out and 
away when we approached. On the 14th there were three eggs, apparently 
the full complement. The actions of the male were interesting. When the 
female was at the nest or near it, he seemed highly interested or excited, con- 
tinually flitting about over her with all the elongated tail-feathers spread, or 
alighting on one side of her and then on the other. This display flight is very 
different from the ordinary flight, the male hovering about, taking short slow 
flights with fluttering wings, and with the tail depressed and spread out fan- 
wise so that it looks much larger than in ordinary flight. By September 22 
many more pairs of the birds were settled in particular areas of rank grass 
jungle or tall rice and the old males made a curious appearance hovering about 
each over his chosen site. The males frequently pursue other females or their 
own mates, with a similar fluttering flight and spread tails. One male that I 
watched kept guard over a territory perhaps 150 to 200 feet long, often pur- 
suing and chasing off other birds that passed or came into it, including females 
of the same or other species of weavers, and once a Pyromelana. His usual 
method was to fly in the slow fluttering manner with spread tail at any perch- 
ing bird which would invariably give way and leave the perch when closely 
approached, whereupon the aggressive male would himself alight upon the 
place. These are silent birds and I never heard one make a note, but possibly 
as with Pyromelana the display flight takes the place of song. Not all the 
birds seemed to be nesting even by September 25, when I saw a flock of seven- 
teen adult males with two in dull plumage fly by in rather open order. After 
leaving the extensive clearings in the region of Gbanga we saw no more of the 
species. They are typically seed-eaters and feed much upon the ground in 
places where the fields are covered with a thin growth of rice or weeds. 
Pyromelana hordacea hordacea (Linné). Fire-headed Weaver 
Loxia hordacea Linné, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, vol. 1, p. 173, 1758: “Indiis,”” but probably Senegal. 
Size of a Bobolink, 5.5 inches; male with the beak, sides of head, chin, wings, tail and belly 
deep black; top of head, nape, sides of head, throat, and rump bright orange red; back, under 
tail-coverts, and tibiae reddish brown. Female, and male in non-breeding dress, dull brown, 
streaked above, chin and belly whitish washed with buff, breast yellowish with fine streaks. 
Africa south of the Sahara. 
Kemp (1905) says that in Sierra Leone, where on account of the bright 
colors of the breeding males this is called ‘“‘Christmas-bird,” the males attain 
