We pass now to a group of exceedingly interesting birds, some of which are remarkable on account of the beauty of their plumage, others from their wonderful nesting-habits. The group includes many familiar as cage-birds, such as the Long-tailed Widow-birds, the Red-beaked Waxbills, Amadavats, Java Sparrow, Grass-finches, Munias, and so on, all of which are embraced under the general title of Weaver-birds, a name bestowed on account of their peculiar nests.
Photo by Dr. R. W. Shufeldt] [Washington.
MEADOW-LARK (NATURAL SIZE).
Known also as the Meadow-starling. This bird, a native of the Eastern United States, has occurred three times in the British Islands, but it is doubtful whether these specimens were wild.
Abundant in Africa, and well represented in South-eastern Asia and Australia, these birds bear a strong family resemblance to the Finches, from which they differ in having ten primary quills in the wings.
One of the most peculiar is the South African Long-tailed Whydah- or Widow-bird. Strikingly coloured, this bird is rendered still more attractive by the extremely elongated tail-feathers, which are many times longer than the body, so long, indeed, as to impede its flight, which is so laboured that children commonly amuse themselves by running the bird down. Kaffir children stretch lines coated with bird-lime near the ground across fields of millet and Kaffir corn, and thereby capture many whose tails have become entangled among the threads.
In brilliancy of coloration the Whydah-birds—for there are several species—are pressed hard by the Bishop-birds, the handsomest of which is the red species. Sociable in habits, this bird throughout the year consorts in immense flocks, which in the summer consist chiefly of males.
Of the more remarkable nest-builders, the most conspicuous are the Baya Sparrows, or Toddy-birds, of India and Ceylon, and the Sociable Weavers. The former suspend their nests by a solidly wrought rope of fibre from the under side of a branch, the rope expanding into a globular chamber, and then again contracting into a long, narrow, vertical tube, through which the birds make their exit and entrance. The latter—the Sociable Weaver-bird of Africa—builds a still more wonderful structure. As a thing apart it has no existence, a number of birds, varying from 100 to 300, joining their nests together, so as to form a closely interwoven structure, resembling, when finished, a gigantic mushroom. The structure is built among the branches of large trees, so that the tree looks as though it had grown up through a native hut, carrying the roof with it. Cartloads of grass are required to rear this structure, which is nearly solid. Seen from below, it presents a flat surface riddled with holes; these are the entrances to the nests.
Closely resembling the typical Finches in general appearance, and often gorgeous in coloration, is the group known as the Tanagers, of which more than 400 distinct species are known to science. Exclusively American, the majority of the species are found in Central and South America, though a few move northwards into the United States in summer. The most beautiful are the Scarlet, Crimson-headed, and White-capped Tanagers. The last-named is generally allowed to be the loveliest of the group. The entire plumage of both sexes is a beautiful cornflower-blue, surmounted by a cap of silvery-white feathers, a crimson spot on the forehead looking like a drop of blood. The identical coloration of the sexes is worth noting, as among the tanagers generally the female is dull-coloured.