The flight of these bold, lively, and restless birds–often met with in small parties–is Finch-like and not uncommonly brief; the song, frequently heard in chorus, is mellow and pleasing, accompanied by chattering, whistling, and chirping notes; the diet consists of insects and fruits, even the latter being occasionally snatched upon the wing; while worms, larvae, and molluscs are eaten, and some species scratch for food among fallen leaves. The nests are usually shallow fabrics of grass, roots, fibres, moss, and lichens, lined with hair or down; twigs, broad leaves, or fern-stems being commonly added below: they are sometimes placed in forks of trees or bushes, if not at the ends of branches; sometimes in masses of creepers, or even upon the ground; that of Pyrrhuphonia is domed, while that of Rhamphocoelus brasilius is built in tall grass in marshy places. The two to four eggs are white, bluish, greenish, grey, salmon-coloured, or rich brown, being at times uniform, but generally blotched, spotted, freckled, lined, or scrolled with brown, lilac, red, purple, or black. Procnias is said to lay three or four white eggs in holes in trees or in the soil, upon a bed of roots and plant-stems.[[309]]
Fig. 140.–Brazilian Tanager. Rhamphocoelus brasilius. × 9⁄20.
Fam. XXXIV. Ploceidae.–The Weaver-birds, closely allied to the above, and hardly to be distinguished from the Fringillidae except by the tenth primary being distinctly developed, may be divided[[310]] into the Sub-families Viduinae, occurring in the Ethiopian, Indian, and Australian Regions, in which this quill is small and falcate, and Ploceinae, peculiar to Africa and its islands–with the exception of the genera Ploceus and Ploceëlla of the Indian Region–in which it is larger. The former group includes the long-tailed Widow-birds, the red-beaked Wax-bills, and so forth; the latter the more typical Weaver-birds; Africa furnishing by far the greatest number of species. The bill is normally strong and conical, but is unusually long and slender in Emblema, and particularly stout with ridged culmen in Amblyospiza; the maxilla may be toothed, as in Pyrenestes, or festooned, as in Spermestes. The metatarsus is moderate, and the hind claw sometimes lengthened, as in Icteropsis. The rounded or pointed wings have very long secondaries, and the tail shews a slight fork; while in the breeding season the four median rectrices in the males of Vidua and several allied genera are extraordinarily elongated, being then either broad or tapering, and reduced to threads at the extremity, or bare-shafted with racquet tips.[[311]] Crests are uncommon, hair-like plumes on the nape more frequent, while Pyromelaena and Urobrachya have a neck-frill in summer.
Fig. 141.–Weaver-bird. Pyromelaena flammiceps. × 7⁄12.
The coloration of these rather small birds is most striking, though the females are usually much duller than the males, which have in some cases a sober winter garb. Vidua principalis is black and white; Penthetria ardens is black with scarlet gorget; Philetaerus socius is brown, buff, black, and white; Zonaeginthus bellus is brown above, with transverse black lines and crimson rump, but silver grey below with black bars; Hypochera ultramarina is entirely purplish-blue; Sporaeginthus amandava, the Amadavat, is chiefly crimson with white dots; Munia oryzivora, the "Java Sparrow," is blue-grey and black with white cheeks. M. punctulata, the Cowry- or Nutmeg-bird, is brown, with white streaks above and spots below, a yellow rump, and a white middle to the under parts. Poëphila mirabilis, one of the Grass-finches, shews a beautiful combination of pale green, blue, lilac, scarlet, yellow, black, brown, and white; Neochmia phaëton is crimson, brown, and black; Foudia is generally crimson and black; Hyphantornis cucullatus is golden-yellow, black, and chestnut; Ploceus baya is yellow and brown; Textor albirostris is entirely black. The bill is not uncommonly coral-red, as in Estrelda and other "Wax-bills;" but it varies from red to horn-coloured in Vidua, and may be whitish, as in Textor albirostris, as well as black, grey, rose-tinted, brownish, orange, or nearly blue. The feet may also be red, brown, purplish, dusky, or flesh-coloured.
Weaver-birds are generally tame, and often approach habitations; the larger species frequenting woods and gardens, open country, sugar-cane fields, or reed-beds, but many of the smaller preferring grassy flats, bushy places, or even stony hills. They are usually social, and frequently pugnacious. The flight, though somewhat brief and heavy, is fairly rapid; Chera and Vidua rise with arched tail, and hover with flapping wings, at times soaring almost out of sight to descend again with great velocity. Sycobrotus climbs especially well, Donacicola hangs to the reeds like a Bunting, and indeed it is doubtful whether the Australian forms are not really generalized Finches. The usual utterance is a harsh churr, a shrill piping cry, a chattering or a twittering noise, often preceded by a single mournful note; but some species sing fairly well in chorus. The food, generally procured upon the ground, consists mainly of seeds, but is varied by insects–occasionally taken on the wing,–fruits, and flowers; while the birds play havoc with rice and other crops, often clinging to the stems until they have eaten every grain from the head.
The nest is almost invariably a large mass of roughish grass or flags, bristling with the thicker ends of the stalks; it is usually lined with finer stems, but sometimes with feathers, down, and wool, while sticks, twigs, roots, and the like may be added exteriorly. The fabric is normally "retort-shaped," that is to say, globular with a "spout" or tubular passage, which curves downwards either from the middle or from the top of one side; but some of the structures resemble flasks placed horizontally; others have little or no spout, or hang by a sort of rope; and occasionally the materials do not quite meet above. Weaver-birds, especially the more typical species, commonly build in colonies, the most remarkable instance being that of Philetaerus, where an umbrella-shaped mass of sticks and straw is formed among the branches of a tree, and in its flat under surface holes for as many as three hundred nests are excavated. Textor makes a somewhat similar joint fabric. In certain cases the hen is said to sit in the roughly-fashioned shell, and to receive the thin ends of the straws from her mate, as he, clinging to the outside, pushes them through with his beak; she then passes them through to him again, and so the process is repeated in true webster fashion. An inner partition is often made to prevent the eggs from rolling out. The structures are placed in trees or bushes, frequently overhanging water, in sugar-canes, reeds, foundations of Eagles' eyries, or–especially by the smaller species–in long herbage. Exceptionally they are found under eaves. Ploceipasser mahali makes two "spouts," Ploceus baya counterpoises its pensile nursery with lumps of clay. The males add to the fabric after their consorts begin to incubate, and are asserted to make nests to sit in; the hens occasionally lay together, though the cocks are not proved to be polygamous. Munia, Stictospiza, Sporaeginthus, and in fact most Indian and Australian forms, deposit from five to seven dull white eggs; Ploceus lays two of a like description; Ploceëlla two, which have a whitish or greyish ground with brown frecklings; the Ethiopian species about five, either plain white, blue, or green, or of the same colours, spotted and blotched with red or purplish-brown. In nests of Hyphantornis and Pyromelaena very diverse specimens are often found.
Fam. XXXV. Icteridae.–This New World group comprises the "American Orioles" or "American Starlings," which are certainly not Orioles, though analogous to the Starlings, and allied through Dolichonyx to the Buntings. From the Fringillidae they are distinguished by the more elongated bill, which has no notch, and by the absence of rictal bristles. Dr. Sclater[[312]] recognises five Sub-families: Cassicinae, with long, straight, and often large bills, widening to a frontal shield; Agelaeinae, where they are conical with flattened culmen, being shortest in Dolichonyx and Molobrus; Sturnellinae, where they are more slender; Icterinae and Quiscalinae, where the culmen is rounded, the length and curvature varying more than elsewhere. Aphobus and Curaeus have grooved mandibles, Gymnostinops a naked space at their base, Clypeïcterus a horny swelling there. The legs are stout, being long in the terrestrial Agelaeinae, Sturnellinae, and Quiscalinae, and not much shorter in the Icterinae and Cassicinae; Dolichonyx has the middle toe, and the Sturnellinae the hallux elongated. The wings are long or moderate, being often pointed with far-extended outer secondaries in the Sturnellinae. The tail varies in length and form, but is much graduated in the Quiscalinae (Boat-tails), which usually carry it in flight with the outer feathers uppermost; it has acuminate rectrices in the Sturnellinae, Leistes, and Dolichonyx, while in the last-named it is forked. Cassiculus, Eurycorystes, and some species of Ostinops have crests, the male of Cassidix a neck-frill, Lampropsar erect frontal plumes, the Sturnellinae bristly crown-feathers, Hypopyrrhus, Curaeus, and Aphobus lanceolate feathers on the head. Gymnomystax possesses naked orbits.