39 



November. I am trying to get one or more of them 

 alive, but although I have heard from different 

 people that they are occasionally caught, I have so 

 far had no success. 



The Ringnecks and Senegals are frequently 

 caught by the village boys, especially during the 

 breeding season, when the young are taken from the 

 nest and easily reared on chewed groundnuts, but 

 the capture of a "Bumbarra Jobo " is likely to be a 

 more difficult job, though I hope, as the natives 

 gradually begin to realise that it pays them well to 

 bring strange beasts and birds to me, that one daj^ a 

 boy will turn up to claim the dollar I am offering for 

 a living and unhurt " Bumbarra." 



Zbc Common Jfirefincb* 



{Lagonostida minima), (a). 



A trauslation from Dr. Karl Russ's " Die fremdlaiidischen 

 Stubeiivogel." 



By E. HOPKINSON, M.B., D.S.O. 



With notes. 



^] 



UTSIDE, the first of the autumnal storms is 



raging; the summer's warmth and glory will 



soon be things of the past, and we must 



resign ourselves to the loss for a period of our 



enjoyment of outdoor nature. But it is just at this 



season, September, that one of the most interesting 



(a) 111 the Catalogue of the British Museum two species of 

 Common Firefinch are described, L. senegala with no side spots, 

 and L. minima with spots, but it is noted that it is very likely 

 that the unspotted individuals are adults, while the spotted 

 ones, which are also not such a deep crimson, are younger 

 birds. These two species, as well as the Brown-headed Fire- 

 finch, Dr. Russ describes under one heading. — F^H. 



