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Mr. Hubert D. Astley,



have no claim, there being a true ‘ Masked firefinch ’ (Lagonosticta

larvata), which is the East African representative of our bird, from

which it really differs very little, being only a shade larger and perhaps

rather darker in colour than it is. There is a good coloured figure

of this species (larvata) in Eeichenbach’s “ Singvogel,” to which it

is only fair that I should refer, after my remarks above on the Sing¬

vogel figure purporting to represent the spotted firefinch. This one

of larvata is as good as that of rufopicta is bad. Like other East

African birds the masked firefinch can have been but rarely imported

in the past, and it is well within the bounds of probability that

Eeichenbach’s figure was drawn from the East African vinacea ; at

any rate the drawing might well represent that species.



MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.


By Hubert D. Astley.


Amongst my geese are two females which are hybrids between

the Magellanic and Ruddy-headed, given me some three years ago by

Lord Tavistock.


Odd birds in every sense of the word ! We call them the

ladies-in-waiting', for one of them is in constant attendance upon a

pair of Sarus cranes who live in one meadow, and the other never

leaves a pair of Australian cranes in another meadow. Yet there are

other geese, some of their own species, and some of several different

ones. It would be very out of the way for one bird to do this, but

for two to take up such a fancy is most extraordinary. Both of

them are full-winged and often fly, but they never leave their res¬

pective meadows and are never far from their respective sovereigns.

In the case of the Sarus cranes, their lady-in-waiting is alivays just

a few yards behind them, and when they throw up their heads to

utter their loud and far-reaching calls, the goose at once joins in

the chorus. If the cranes walk too fast, the goose catches them

up by flying after them, the Maharajah and Maharanee as I call

them, for they were presented to me by the Gaekwar ("of Baroda).

As a mere lady-in-waiting, perhaps but a woman of the bedchamber,

she is not permitted to feed at the same table, and if the goose



