Identifier: birdsofafricacom42shel (find matches)
Title: The birds of Africa, comprising all the species which occur in the Ethiopian region
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Shelley, G. E. (George Ernest), 1840-1910 Sclater, W. L. (William Lutley), 1863-1944 Grönvold, Henrik, 1858-1940
Subjects: Birds Birds
Publisher: London, Published for the author by R.H. Porter (18 Princes Street, Cavendish Square, W.)
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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Text Appearing Before Image:
e Weaver-birds occasionally feed on seeds, berriesand small forest fruit. Their nests, shaped like long-neckedretorts, are suspended from the extremities of branches, fre-quently at a considerable height and often overhanging astream or open space in the bush. They are rather large andare coarsely woven from tlie tendrils of vines without any softlining. A pair of birds wmU frequently work for three monthson the structure of their nest. They invariably build alone,never in colonies. During the month of September or earlyin October they lay two, or occasionally three, eggs of a whitishground colour, rather thickly spotted with pale red. Theymeasure about 075 x 000. That the type of Pijranga icteromelas, Vieill., was a nativeof America, I look upon as impossible; that it and the typeof Ploceus bicolor, Vieill., belong to one species, as Pucheranremarks, is improbable, and that the latter refers to a WestAfrican species is possible. This leaves Fringilla gregalis, THE BIRDS OF AFRICA,PL.
Text Appearing After Image:
l.Sycobpotus stictifrons2.Sita-Ppa. alieTia. . SYCOBROTUS STICTIFRONS 869 Licht., as the oldest name we can be certain of, for the SouthAfrican bird. Vieillots description of his Pyranga icteronielasagrees perhaps best with the immature plumage of 8. kersteni. Sycobrotus stictifrons. (PI. 39, fig. 1.) Symplectes stictifrons, Fisch. and Reiclien. J. f. 0. 1885, p. 373 Liiuli. Sycobrotus stictifrons, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 424 (1890) ; ShelleyB. Afr. I. No. .504 (1896). Ploceus stictifrons, Eeichen. Vog. Afr. iii. p. 33 (1904). Adults. Sioailar to S. gregalis, from which they differ in the upper partsbeing slightly paler and more ashy, especially towards the lower back andupper tail-coverts, which are entirely ashy brown ; feathers of forehead,front of crown and cheeks with white tips, giving to these parts a speckledappearance; chin and upper throat dark brown, with whitish angular shaft-stripes ; centre of fore chest with a little black, generally hidden by theyellow portion of t

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