WAX-BILLS. 



543 



and some are even known to actually strip the tliiu twigs of their leaves in order to 

 make the access to the nest still more lUflicull. The weavers are easily kept in cap- 

 tivity, and even in a cage they busy themselves with weaving grass, threads — in fact, 

 anything they can get hold of — into the wire netting of the cage, while in the aviary 

 they keej) uj) their regular nest-weaving. 



Tlie vidas ( Vidua) are like the true weavers, but the males are adorned with enor- 

 mously lengthened tail-feathers in the pairing season. They are exclusively African. 





FlO. 270.— Trxtor dinrmtllii iiiul .il.nn, Africnn wpaver-Wnls. 



The waxhills, on the other hand, are also distributed over the Oriental region, and 

 Australia possesses many very beautiful species of these exquisite little grosbeaks, 

 which have derived their j.opnlar name from the fact that the bill of many species is 

 red, as if made of sealing wa.x. Mostly delicately colored and very hardy, "these birds 

 make very attractive cage birds, and some of them, for instance one of the smallest 

 species, the vermilion rod, white-dropped Lar/ono.tticte, are pleasant soncrsters, and most 

 of them become very tame in confinement, so as to even readily breed in a small cage. 



