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Foreign Finches in Captivity.
nest of this species is placed close to the ground, in a tuft of long grass,
to tlie blades and stalks of whicli it is rouglilj^ woven or joined; it is ratlier
a rougii structure, composed of fine grass and lined with the reed-ends; the
opening is at the side. The eggs are almost invariably four in number. It is
called by the colonists " Kaffir Fink," and Captain Harford saj-s that the Zulu
name is " Isa-Kabuli." "
Messrs. Butler, Feilden and Reid say:—" One of the commonest birds in
the upper portions of the colony, but not observed in any great numbers
below Howick, or rather Riet Sprint, a few miles lower down on the Pietermaritzburg
Road. Reid met with a small colony on the downs near Richmond
Road Station in December, but did not observe them elsewhere in that
neighbourhood. The}' roost in hundreds, or even thousands, in the reedy
" vleys," flock after flock pouring in from all sides about sundoTO till the
whole place is alive with them. Long-Tailed Widow-bird, Kaffir Chief, called
by the Kaffirs " Saca-bulo." "
" After a severe hailstorm in October, Butler found several of these birds
near Newcastle so injured by the hailstones that they were unable to fly."
Dr. Russ gives an account of the habits of a male in the Berlin
Zoological Gardens in much the same words as he uses to describe those of
the Paradise Whydah ; as compared with the small Whj'dahs it is by no means
active, flj'ing somewhat heavilj' out from a branch and retimiing to the same
spot.
Singularl}' enough, after describing the nest-building of the Paradise Whydah
and distinctlj- showing that the hens were the architects and that the cockbird
took no interest either in the nest or the j^onng (a common failing in
other polj'gamous birds) ; he now seems to have forgotten his own experience and
urges, almost word for word, the same fallacy' put fonvard by Wiener in "Cassell's
Cage Birds," viz:—That as the males, and not the females, of all Weavers build
the nest; the accounts of travellers who describe the domed structure of this bird
must be incorrect.
As a matter of fact the Whj'dahs are a transitional group between the
Ornamental Finches and the Weavers; and the males of the majoritj' of the
species have not acquired the exclusive art ascribed to them and for which their
stjde of plumage unfits them : furthermore even hen Weavers are not all incapable
of construction, since my first hen of the Orange Bishop built her own nest,
whilst her husband looked on unconcernedly; and, in the case of the species of
Ploceus, both sexes work together upon their habitation, the male commencing.
The Long-Tailed Whydah. 289
and both male and female completing the strticttire.
Mr. Abrahams received a small consignment of this rarely imported species
in 1893, btit I believe they were all males. Dr. Russ thinks that when birds
were onlj' imported on account of their beauty, the African catchers were
instructed not to retain hens, and they still imagine that there is no demand
for that sex: but if this be so, how is it that they capture the hens of other
species which are not one whit more attractive ?
Sketch for the illustration of the male made from a living specimen exhibited
at the Crystal Palace in 1895: details filled in from a skin.