738 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
their full nuptial plumage in late July and early August. We saw our first 
colony at Plantation 3 on the Du River, where a number of pairs were com- 
mencing to breed in the first week of August in a patch of rank weeds and 
grass. We saw a number of old nests and a few new ones on August 5, one 
of the latter with four blue eggs. In practically every case the globular nest 
was suspended from two stout grass stems and at a height of five feet or less. 
At Gbanga, in September we found a good many in similar situations. They 
prefer a mixture of rank weeds and grass to a grass jungle alone. The males 
are very conspicuous perching about here and there on the tops of the weeds, 
and like the Long-tailed Black Weavers, their neighbors, they are very silent, 
making up for the lack of sound by their notable plumage and actions. 
From their conspicuous perches they often take short flights, with body feath- 
ers obviously puffed out, and on hovering wings with slow up and down strokes 
flutter a short distance to some other perch, showing off their bright coloring 
to great effect. One on alighting from such a display flight, spread his wings 
out on each side downward. Other passing birds are pursued and driven away. 
I saw three chase off a Spurred Coucal (Centropus), and on another occasion 
a Long-tailed Black Weaver (Coliwspasser) was driven away by a male whose 
territory he had invaded. Another time while a male was making one of his 
slow, fluttering display flights his mate left a nearby perch and flew off over 
the sea of weed-tops, when the male instantly changed his manner of flying 
and dashed rapidly after her. In their habit of perching conspicuously about 
on the grass and weed-tops, and in their modified display type of flight, as 
well as in the lively pursuit flight of the male after his mate, these weavers 
recall very strongly the somewhat similar habits of our meadow-living Bobo- 
links. 
Spermestes cucullatus cucullatus Swainson. Hooded Waxbill or Thatch-bird 
Spermestes cucullata Swainson, Birds West Africa, vol. 1, p. 201, 1837: no locality. 
Small, length 3.75 inches; throat and tail black, crown, shoulder-patches, and a small flank 
patch black with green sheen; back and wings grayish brown, belly white; flanks, and upper and 
under tail-coverts barred black and white. Female slightly duller. Senegambia to the Lake region. 
In the villages of the interior this is a common household bird, coming 
familiarly about the natives’ huts and usually making its nests in hollows or 
holes of the thatched roofs. Apparently it is less common on the coast for 
Lowe did not collect it during his visit to Liberia, and Biittikofer seems to have 
either confused this with the following species or found it at only a few places. 
We first noticed it at Kaka Town in late August, and watched several birds 
actively building nests, even though the rains were still heavy. Apparently 
the serious work of nest-building fell to the share of the female. We saw one 
bringing stalks of dead grass two or three times her own length, selecting a 
kind that had a long stem surmounted by a few lateral branches at the tip. 
These stalks were carried by the butt end and taken into a hole among the 
roofing thatch (usually of palm fronds) where the bird would proceed to arrange 
them. The male would sometimes fly out to meet the incoming female and 
