The Comparative Breeding Ecology of Two Species of Euplectes (Bishop Birds) In Usambara

Abstract

Euplectes 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.