58



Dr. E. HOPKINSON



papier-mach A This is one of the very few exceptions in this most

useful book, which contains 50 coloured plates, giving coloured

figures of at least four times as many weavers, whvdahs, and wax-

hills, most of which, considering the date of publication (186- ) and

the general character of the book and plates, are accurate and readily

recognisable. With this particular bird, however, the author has

not been fortunate in his artist, or perhaps it was a case of the

latter having to make bricks without straw and do the best he could

without a bird or its skin before him. If that was so and he had

to rely for his inspiration entirely on the short and anything but

accurate description given on page 19 of the letterpress, one need

not wonder at its failure, for this description would almost fit a

confectioner’s robin as well as, or better than, any living bird.


For some reason (perhaps the influence of the last paragraph

of Dr. Butler’s account of this species, where he gives Mr. Abrahams’

unfortunate experience with a consignment of these birds), I have

always at the back of my mind kept to the idea that these birds

were more delicate than even the common firefinches. My records

however of those I have kept by no means bear out this belief.


The first I ever saw were three I brought home among a large

collection (some hundreds) of Gambian seed-eaters in July, 1902.

These, the only three obtained, were turned into an outside aviary,

where one died in the following September. The other two I kept,

outside during the summer months and indoors in a cage in the

winter, till 1903. In October of that year I exhibited one at the


* Directly I had written this down I realised that I had got right on to

one of the many debatable grounds of present day aviculture, and feel certain

that it will call forth some rejoinder that firefinches are not delicate if properly

treated. Anyhow, I will warn any corrector, that although I have had to change

my opinion regarding the spotted firefinch’s delicacy, I shall never be able to

believe the same of the common firefinch or that ‘ hardy ’ is an epithet that

suits them.


The whole question of the hardiness or the reverse of any particular

species, and also the possibility or ease of breeding in confinement, depends so

much, it seems tome, on the individual, not only of the bird but of its owner,

that any generalisation from a pair or two, or from one man’s experience (such

as I am writing now) is of little value as regards the species as a whole. One

pair, out of several, all apparently in the same excellent condition, will survive

to old age (or breed, as the case may be), and one aviculturist will succeed where

others fail.



