PARASITIC WEAVERBIRDS 113 



Orange-cheeked waxbill: Estrilda melpoda (Vieillot) 2* 



Although this species has been hsted in the Uterature among the 

 hosts of the pintail, I have been unable to find a single actual record. 

 Chapin (1954, p. 577) listed it among the Congo birds in whose nests 

 one should look for eggs of the parasite, but gave no instances of any- 

 having been reported. Sander (1957, p. 67), in Nigeria, thought the 

 pintail was locally parasitic on the orange-cheeked waxbill, and always 

 found the two species closely associated in the field. 



Hosts recorded only in aviaries: When pintails in captivity 

 attempt to breed they are, of necessity, restricted in their choice of 

 hosts to those birds that are present and breeding in the same cage. 

 Two species occurring in the same geographic areas as the parasite 

 have been recorded as what might be termed "avicultural hosts" but 

 have not been so described in a wild state. The ribbon finch, Amadina 

 Jasciata is one of them. It reared a young pintail in Anningson's 

 aviary (W. T. Page, 1914, p. 39). The other is the rufous sparrow, 

 Passer rufocindus, so recorded in V. G. L. van Someren's aviary near 

 Nairobi (van Someren, 1917, pp. 288-289; Shore-Bailey, 1923, p. 110). 

 Ob\4ously, neither of them can be looked upon as natural hosts of the 

 pintail, but it is also obvious that they could serve in this capacity. 



Nestling Stage 



The most detailed notes on the nestling stage are the following' 

 paraphrased of Skead (1957, pp. 214-216), who made them near lung 

 WilUam's Town, Cape Province. These notes are also here augmented 

 slightly by additional information kindly sent me in personal communi- 

 cations. 



Nest no. 1: March 3, 1953: Skead finds a nest of the common 

 waxbill with eight nestlings, each a few days old and still sightless. 

 Their bodies are dark pinkish-mauve, pinker below. Their bills are 

 black and legs gray. The gape edges are peculiar: At the upper edge 

 is a wliite waxy, comma shaped tubercle, while on the edge of the 

 mandible immediately below and fitting into each side of this tubercle 

 are two smaller wliite tubercles. The mouth is very pale pink, and on 

 the roof of it are five black dots. At the edges of the tongue are two 

 black dots, and on the base of the mouth under the tongue is one black 

 dot. 



When looking into the nest, i.e., up the spout, Skead sees that the 

 white tubercles produce a most peculiar effect. With all the chicks 

 facing the entrance, the effect is of eight pairs of very white eyes 

 looking out — a purely illusory effect as the true eyes are still closed — 

 but the distinct whiteness probably helps the adults find the mouths 



^0 Fringilla melpoda Vieillot, Nouveau dictionnaire d'bistoire naturelle, vol. 12, 1817, p. 177 (west coast 

 of Africa). 



