catching oue. Beside their extraordinary activity, they 

 are the slimmest birds at escaping that I know ; when 

 first caught they used to squeeze out through holes 

 which none of the other birds would attempt ; even the 

 smaller Zebra Waxbills could not, or at any rate did not, 

 get through a hole hardly more than a crack, by which 

 I lost about half-a-dozen iMrefinches. 



Just now a pair in the aviar}', taking advantage of the 

 present genial weather, is industriously engaged in 

 piling up a collection of straw, grass, and wool, in a 

 cocoanut husk ; but I hope the hen will not be so mis- 

 guided as to lay, for the result will almost certainly be 

 fatal. 



The ViNACEOUS FiREFiNCH is a rather larger bird 

 than the Common, and in disposition is much quieier and 

 more sedate ; those I brought home arrived in almost 

 perfect condition, though for a month or more they had 

 been in a cage with at least two hundred other birds, 

 many of which, as was to be expected, suffered more or 

 less in their plumage ; but these always seemed to be 

 cleaning themselves up and were always ready for a bath. 

 The only other bird of this species I have had previously, 

 was one I bought a few years ago in very poor condition, 

 but he soon grew fresh feathers and afterwards remained 

 in perfect condition till his death by suffocation, (the 

 result of an accident with the stove), some eighteen 

 months later. In Africa I never noticed them with the 

 common Firefinches about the villages, for the}- kept 

 further afield, frequenting the borders of the cultiva- 

 tion, and especially the rice-fields near the swamps. 

 DescrijDtion. — The cock has a black mask and grey 

 crown, while the rest of the body is a beautiful plum- 

 colour ; the tail and wing-feathers are a much richer 

 shade of the same colour and blackish underneath ; on 

 the sides of the breast are a few white spots. Bill and 

 feet blackish. The hen is similar in colour, but is not sc 

 bright, and the tail and wings are more uniform with the 

 body-colour ; she has also no black mask, but the crowr 



