Browsing by Author "Moreau, W.M."
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Item The Bird Population of a Settled Valley in the West Usambaras, Tanganyika Territory(1931) Moreau, R.E.; Moreau, W.M.; East African Agricultural Research Station, Amani.We are aware that the most satisfactory season at which to determine the number of birds" carried" by any given area is when breeding is at its height, and the birds are in consequence more definitely localised than at any other time. We were not3 free agents in our choice of the date to visit Kongei, but it is doubtful if in any case we could have chosen a much better period of the year. Field work of any description is next to impossible in the" rains." Of East Africa as a whole, it has been stated that breeding seasons generally are dependent on the" rains," but they are much less defined than in the Temperate Zones. In the Usambaras the greater part of the annual rainfall is recorded in two periods, between the end of March and the beginning of June, and between the end of October and the end of November. At Kongei in September an appreciable proportion of the birds were engaged in some phase of breeding activity. The loud song and pugnacity connected in the Temperate Zone with territory holding were little in evidence however, and we have yet to gain a clear idea of what part this element of bird-behaviour plays among tropical birds.Item The Comparative Breeding Ecology of Two Species of Euplectes (Bishop Birds) in Usambara(1938) Moreau, R.E.; Moreau, W.M.; East African Agricultural Research Station, AmaniEUPLECTES NIGROVENTRIS CASSIN, the Zanzibar red bishop, and Eh hordeacea (Linn.), the crimson-crowned bishop, are weavers of the subfamily Ploceinae. On the biology of the former species nothing appears to have been recorded hitherto except the notes reproduced by Reichenow (1904) and those of Vaughan (1929), who (rightly) suspected it to be polygamous. For Euplectes hordeacea we take the work of Lack (1935) as basis and amplify only certain points. Our study is more incomplete than we should have wished because we could not make continuous observations and because of an unexpected technical difficulty. The males of both these bishop birds have a highly conspicuous red breeding dress and are at other times practically indistinguishable in the field from females and young. Both are territory-holding species dependent on grasses for their food and their nesting materials. The architecture of their nests, which are similar except in size, demands close upright vegetation. The rather restricted geographical range of E. nigroventris is wholly contained in that of E. hordeacea. The two species may often be found side by side, but in our experience there is little ecological overlap; the smaller E. nigroventrisItem The Comparative Breeding Ecology of Two Species of Euplectes (Bishop Birds) In Usambara(1938) Moreau, R.E.; Moreau, W.M.; AMANIEuplectes Nigroventris Cassin, the Zanzibar red bishop, and E.h. hordeacea (Linn.), the crimson-crowned bishop, are weavers of the subfamily Ploceinae. On the biology of the former species nothing appears to have been recorded hitherto except the notes reproduced by Reichenow (1904) and those of Vaughan (1929), who (rightly) suspected it to be polygamous. For Euplectes hordeacea we take the work of Lack (1935) as basis and amplify only certain points. Our study is more incomplete than we should have wished because we could not make continuous observations and because of an unexpected technical difficulty.Item Hornbill Studies.(1940) Moreau, W.M.; Moreau, R.E.RECENTLY we have undertaken the hand-rearing of young Lophoceros melanoleucos and young Bycanistes cristatus. In nature these species form an interesting contrast: the former is omnivorous and something of a predator; the latter is frugivorous. The female Lophoceros breaks her way out of the nest-hole when the young are barely half fledged and thereafter helps her mate to feed them; the female Bycanistes remains in the nest with her offspring (usually only one) until it is ready to fly.Item Incubation and Fledging Periods of African Birds(1940) Moreau, R.E.; Moreau, W.M.; East African Agricultural Research Station, Amani, Tanganyika TerritoryDifficulties and necessary precautions in recording fledging and incubation periods are reviewed. Data are given, mostly for the first time, for about forty-five Tropical African species, some with many replications. None of the birds have incubation periods shorter than those of comparable Temperate Zone birds and some have slightly longer. As with Temperate Zone birds there is a tendency for fledging and incubation periods to be more or less equal in the same species, but hole-dwelling and long-winged birds take longer to fledge than to hatch. On the whole the African birds take longer to fledge than do comparable Temperate Zone birds, but not in (inverse) proportion to the shorter daylight. Temperature, at least within the seasonal variation at Amani (ca. 4° C.), does not affect length of individual incubation or fledging period.Item an introduction of the epiphytic Orchids of East Africa(1943) Moreau, W.M.; Moreau, R.; AmaniOver fifteen thousand species of orchids haye been described,the vast majority of them tropical , and the greater part of them epiphytic, that is, normally growing on trees without deriving sustenance from them. But little more than t n per cent of the majestic total belong to Tropical Africa and moreover, so far as is known at present, within that area ground orchids predominate over epiphytic in the proportion of more than three to one.Item XXXIII.—Hornbill Studies(1940) Moreau, W.M.; Moreau, R.E.; East African Agricultural Research Station AmaniRECENTLY we have undertaken the hand-rearing of young Lophoceros melanoleucos and young Bycanistes cristatus. In nature these species form an interesting contrast: the former is omnivorous and something of a predator; the latter is frugivorous. The female Lophoceros breaks her way out of the nest-hole when the young are barely half fledged, and thereafter helps her mate to feed them; the female Bycanistes remains in the nest with her offspring (usually only one) until it is ready to fly.
