156 



rufopictd) in size and markings, but is clearly dis- 

 tinguished from this species by the orange colour 

 which replaces the crimson of riifopicta. 



The above description fits the bird I now have very exactly, 

 except that portion regarding the similarity to L. rufopicta. 

 My bird certainly is very unlike the latter, several of which are 

 now in the same cage, so that comparison is easy ; as I said 

 above he is a Common Firefinch in everything but his colour. 

 There are two details omitted in Reichenow's description, the 

 colour of the eyelid-ring and the presence of white spots on 

 the sides. In my bird there are a few of the latter, very 

 minute, on the sides of the chest, and the lid-ring is pale 

 3'ellow, like that of L. senegala, and quite different from the 

 narrower and pale-grey lid of rufopicta ; in the latter too the 

 side-spots are large, distinct and almost linear. — (K. H.). 



^be Jacauini Jfincb. 



( Volatinia jacari7ii) 

 By W. T. Page, F.Z.vS., etc. 



This handsome bird, after being off the market 

 for some years, has recently come to hand in fair 

 numbers, but males only. It is very similar in colour 

 to the Combasou, but is a much more graceful bird, of 

 fine contour and a longish tail, which is widest at 

 the end. 



The adult male is glossy blue black, with purplish 

 reflections on the neck in some lights ; the shoulders 

 and wing-coverts are silky snow-white. The female 

 is brown, Mr. R. A. Todd describing it as resembling 

 the female Indigo Finch.* 



•The male when out of colour, (if oue may use that term, for it has no 

 seasonal change of plumage in the same sense that the Combasou has), is 

 always glossy black, and always retains the white shoulder with a very 

 variable quantity of greenish -huffish brown markings, principally on the 

 breast, imparting to it quite a speckled appearance on the underparts. 



