i8o 

 THE BIRDS OF WEST AFRICA. 



Having been stationed up country in the Gambia 

 Protectorate for the last six months, I have had an 

 opportunit}' of watching many of our commonly im- 

 ported West African birds in their wild state, and think 

 a few notes may interest our readers. 



Most of the common Waxbills and small finches 

 abound, and beside these there are many which I have 

 never seen in captivity ; mostly dull-coloured insig- 

 nificant looking little birds. 



Kvery village swarms with Firefinches, the cocks 

 gorgeous in their scarlet plumage, attended by about a 

 dozen more soberly -clad hens. They are absolutely 

 domesticated, flying in and out of the houses and build- 

 ing in the grass roofs, and finding the greater part of 

 their food in the compounds around the houses. This 

 for the most part consists of the wasted seeds of the 

 millet, and one often sees the heap of husks, which 

 accumulate where the women winnow the ears, red with 

 these little birds. Besides they also hunt for and catch 

 a large number of small insects in the thatch, and 

 perhaps the fact that they require more insect food 

 than their congeners may partly account for their 

 undoubtedly greater delicacy as cage-birds. 



Cordon Bleus and Common Waxbills are the next 

 most noticeable birds. These, although they do not 

 actually live in the villages, are confined, like all the 

 small seed-eaters, to the cultivated ground immediately 

 surrounding the villages; here any day one sees, beside 

 the above, Lavender Finches, Zebra Waxbills, Singing 

 Finches and many other small seed-eaters, while Glossy 

 Starlings (both Long- tailed and Purple), Pipits, Reed 

 Cuckoos, and Warblers in hundreds, represent the soft- 

 billed birds. 



Just now (May) the Weavers are coming into colour, 

 a change which in nature apparently takes place very 

 much more rapidly than in captivity : one week one sees 



