. 155 



cage with other rare birds, but one day it got out into 

 the bird-room, where some of the larger Starlings 

 lived, and here it was either killed by one of these or 

 managed to escape for good. Again in September, 

 1875, the large dealer, Mieth of Berlin, received from 

 Antwerp a big lot of small Africans in which a similar 

 bronzed-coloured Firefinch chanced to be included, 

 and in full plumage too, but so ill that it died in a few 

 days. Mr. Mietli gave me the body and Herr Reichenow 

 and I, though we went through the collection in the 

 Berlin Museum and thoroughly searched the literature, 

 could find nothing about such a bird, and so came to 

 the conclusion that we had lighted on an undescribed 

 species, to which Herr Reichenow has given my name 

 {^Aegmtha riissi), while I have christened it with the 

 vernacular name which heads this section. Perhaps 

 this pretty Firefinch (the only known specimen of 

 which is now in the Berlin Museum), will later on be 

 imported in larger numbers, but hitherto only the two 

 specimens I mention appear to have been found among 

 the many thousands of small Waxbills, etc., which 

 come into the market every year during the latter part 

 of the summer. 



Herr Reichenow thus describes these birds : — 

 Forehead, sides of head and whole under surface 

 orange (yellowish-red) ; above dark brown tinged 

 with orange ; rump, orange ; tail feathers black 

 with broad outer margins to their basal portions ; 

 under tail - coverts and vent brown with a faint 

 orange wash ; bill orange-red with black culmen 

 and a pale horn -coloured cutting-edge ; iris dark- 

 brown ; feet pale horn-brown. Length 9.50m. The 

 bird closely resembles the Spotted Firefinch (/.. 



