88 



Saffron Finch who is a coiifirnied " tippler," though 

 seeniingl}' in the best of health. And why should a 

 certain Black-headed Mannikiu prefer to have a shower 

 bath when his companions bathe, rather than do as they 

 and have a bath of his own ? Or a Bengali distinguish 

 himself and get dubbed " Diogenes," simply because he 

 chose to pass his time in an ornamental straw nest ? Or a 

 — bnt no, I must not trespass further on our limited space, 

 beyond congratulating Miss Alderson on her Shamah, 

 which is certainly a very good mathematician, and 

 another instance of individuality in birds. 



One more instance, and this time a perfectly under- 

 standable one occurs to me. Why should one of my Grey 

 Singing Finches always sleep leaning against a perch, or 

 the wires of the aviary .? And the reason in this case is 

 because he has only one leg — and a very good reason too, 

 don't you think } J. A. vSwan. 



THE OLIVE CUBA FINCH. 



Phonipara olivacea. 



Having received a pair of these, which I bought as 

 ordinary Cuba Finches— I think a few notes on them 

 ma}' interest some of our members. 



They are about the size of the common Cuba Flinch 

 and are much the same in habits and general appearance, 

 but differ from them greatly in colour, in both sexes. 

 The yellow collar, which is such a striking feature of the 

 Cuba Finch, is absent— but there is, in the cock, a bright 

 orange patch under the beak, forming a bib, also an 

 orange streak from the base of the bill over the eye. In 

 the female these orange markings are replaced by 

 3'ellowish white. 



So far, I have heard no approach to a song — in fact, 

 hardly a twitter. 



These birds have been bred in Scotland in a cage 

 18" X 12* X [4", with a small flower pot as a nest box. 

 The pot had a hole, one inch square, in the lip of it, and 



