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little South African species the Dufresne's Waxbill 

 {Coccopygia dtifresiiii) which but seldom makes its 

 appearance on the Show Bench. 



The class for Grosbeaks, True Finches, and Bunt- 

 ings made a good muster of eighteen. The first prize 

 winner was a nice Black-headed Siskin. There were 

 several pairs of Cuba Finches, some of the commoner 

 and more attractive species and some of the Olive 

 species — but none of them were in first rate order — in 

 fact the Pho7iipara are not easy to keep in show con- 

 dition, and in this respect they resemble Parrot 

 Finches. (There is, however, a special reason for the 

 difiiculty in the case of the Parrot Finches, for they 

 moult twice in the year.) Mr. Townsend had a good 

 Yellow-billed Cardinal, and another exhibitor a rather 

 poor pair of the same species. Mr. Frostick's Swain- 

 son's Sparrow is an uncommon show-bird, but is 

 scarcely an ornament of the Show Bench. Mr. Howe's 

 Alario Finch might, we think, have received more 

 than the H.C. awarded to it — it belonged to the species, 

 sub-species, or variety which exhibits a much greater 

 proportion of white in its plumage than the ordinary 

 kind does. 



The class tor Tanagers, Sugar-birds, &c., is 

 always one of the most attractive, and it was rendered 

 more than usually interesting this year by the pre- 

 sence of Mr. Hawkins' Malachite Sun-bird. It is open 

 to question whether this apparently newly-imported 

 bird deserved the first prize awarded to it. It was 

 weak and sickly, and in no sense in show condition. 

 We can understand and sympathise with the judge's 

 reluctance to pass such a bird, but surely a prize 

 should not be awarded for rarity only. We think that 



