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Mr. Reginald Phillipps,



and the aviculturist; in other words the aviculturist should be

an ornithologist ; he should find out, as far as possible, all that

is known about birds, and he should study his living birds with

the object of finding out what is not known, and what cannot be

found out from dried skins or books.


In looking back over the first eight years of the Society’s

life, there are two or three names that stand out prominently, and

to whom every member owes a debt of gratitude. We refer

especially to those gentlemen who were chiefly concerned in the

foundation of the Society, and who held the honorary posts of

Secretary and Editor during its first j^ears. And we need not

remind our members of the amount they owe to the present

hard-working Honorary Secretary, who has been a pillar of

strength to the Society since its birth in 1894.



THE BLUE-BREASTED WAXBILL.


Estrilda angole?isis.


By Reginald Phillipps.


When our Members open their Magazine this month, the

Centenary Number of the Society’s publication, and look at the

portrait of the graceful little birds that adorn its pages, not a few

of them will exclaim, “ A common Cordon Bleu ! ” But if our

friends will kindly look again, those of them who are sharp will

quickly discover that the birds figured by our artist are not

Cordons, although remarkably like, and very closely related to,

our familiar little friend. I11 the Zoological Society’s “ List,”

the latter does not appear under the name of Cordon Bleu but as

the Crimson-eared Waxbill (E. phocnicotis) ; and here at once we

have a difference between the two species, for the male of the

Blue-breasted Waxbill lacks the well-known crimson ear-patch

which is so conspicuous on the male Cordon.


According to books, there is not any other difference in

plumage between the two species, the females being alike. I

think it was Mr. D. Seth-Smith who told me last year that he

had been comparing a skin of the female of each species, and



