188 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



over, struggling and biting on the sand for a minute, 

 then up it goes perpendicularly like a rocket, as if it 

 would infallibly strike the ceiling, but turns just in 

 time and drops back to its branch, whence it looks 

 sharply round for another victim. Thus, except when 

 feeding, this mischievous sport continues throughout 

 the day. 



After a male Pintail ihad displayed its beauty and 

 tormented its companions in one of "my aviaries for two 

 seasons I took compassion on the latter, and confined 

 the active little fellow in a large domed cage, but soon 

 after he caught cold, and died in a decline. 

 ^ This Whydah is of about the size of an English 

 Siskin, but has much longer legs, and a tail which 

 increases in length with the age of the bird. Thus my 

 specimen in 1890 moulted out a tail having only two 

 long feathers, which measured 9| in. ; the following 

 year it produced four feathers in place of the two, and 

 when it moulted I saved the longer plumes, which 

 measured 10J in. 



Mr. Boyd Alexander says that "the males have a 

 laboured flight, as if they were weighed down by their 

 long tails " ; but it seemed to me that so far from 

 hindering the bird's flight the tail seemed to assist it. 

 enabling it to twist about in all directions with almost 

 lightning speed. 



SHAFT-TAILKD WHYDAH (Tetrccintra regia). 



Above black ; feathers of rump grey at base ; bastard- 

 wing, primary coverts and primaries smoky brown, the 

 latter narrowly edged with whity-brown ; tail-feathers, 

 excepting the central ones, similar to the primaries, but 

 the outer ones with a large white spot at extremity of 

 inner web ; a broad tawny buff collar behind head ; ear- 

 coverts, cheeks, and under surface also tawny buff, 

 rufescent on sides of body, where there is a large tuft 

 of silky white plumes ; sides of vent and under tail- 

 coverts black ; under wing-coverts and axillaries 

 white, yellowish at edge of wing ; flights below 

 blackisih, their inner edges white ; beak and feet coral- 

 red ; irides dark hazel. Female above rufescent brown 

 with broad dark brown centres ; wing-feathers blackish- 

 brown edged with buff; tail short, blackish-brown; the 

 feathers edged and the three outer pairs tipped with 

 buff ; head and neck buff, with a broad band of feathers 

 coloured like those of th back on each side of the 

 crown from the nostrils to the nape ; under surface 

 white, with the throat and sides of body sandy buff ; 

 under wing-coverts white ; flights below paler than 

 above and with whitish inner margins. Male in winter 

 plumage similar to the female, but doubtless a trifle 

 larger and darker. Hab., " Southern Africa between 

 15 deg. S. Lat. and 31 deg. S. Lat. and westward 

 from 30 deg. E. Long." (Shelley.) 



Stark ("Birds of South Africa," Vol. I., p. 149) 

 observes : " I have only had limited opportunities of 

 observing this species in Xatal, where I have found it 

 frequenting much the same localities as the commoner 

 Vidua paraditfci . grassy plains and marshy ground 

 interspersed with groves of trees or bushes. It is poly- 

 gamous, each male in spring being accompanied by from 

 ten to twenty females. At this season the beautiful 

 cocks are very pugnacious and are constantly fighting 

 and chasing one another, their long tails by no means 

 incommoding their flight, as is the case with Vidua 

 paradisea. They are, indeed, of much more active 

 habits than are the latter birds. Their call-note is a 

 sharp chirp, occasionally uttered, but the cocks, in 

 moments of excitement, indulge in a short and rather 

 feeble song. They feed almost entirely on grass-seeds. 

 Although I have never found a nest, I have every 

 reason to suppose, from having on several occasions 

 carefully watched the birds, that each female builds a 



separate one in the long grass, the cock not interfering, 

 beyond keeping watch and warning the hens by his 

 alarm-call, should danger approach." 



In the " Journal of the South African Ornithologists" 

 Union," 1st series, Vol. II., p. 27, Dr. E. Symonds 

 remarks of this bird in the Orange River Colony : " The 

 males are often seen together in pairs accompanied by 

 a crowd of sober-plumaged females. They are very fond 

 of slitting on a wire fence and flying rapidly to and fro 

 between the ground and the fence. They are mostly 

 found on the outskirts of the town and in "the gardens. 

 On a farm some distance from here I observed a pair 

 of males as usual and several females, and a nest was 

 commenced in a peach tree, but never finished, though 

 protected as far a,s possible. I kept one once in my 

 aviary, but he died before changing his garb. They seem 

 delicate and difficult to keep in confinement, like some 

 others of the same family." 



Russ says that examples of this rarely-imported 

 Whydah have occasionally come into the' hands of 

 Messrs. Hagenbeck, Jamrach, Madame Poisson, and 

 more recently of Gaetano Alpi of Trieste, but in their 

 winter plumage, in which they were not recognised by 

 these dealers. He picked one'out of a lot of Whydahs 

 put of colour which he received from Oarl Hagenbeck, 

 but unfortunately dt died before coming into breeding 

 plumage. He quotes Vieillot as saying that it must In ve 

 a very large cage and a frequent bath to keep it in 

 health, that he himself thus kept it for from eight to 

 ten years. To breed it one must provide a temperature 

 of from 25 to 30 degrees <(R.) ;and fit up the cage with 

 evergreen bushes. It is difficult, but well worth while. 

 to induce it to nest. As Dr. Russ observes : " Whether 

 the bird has actually been bred in captivity is not 

 stated." Buffon says that this Whyda.h in 'his time 

 was to be obtained in numbers in, Paris, and according to 

 Bechstein's testimony it was occasionally brought to 

 England, Holland, and Germany. 



In late years several examples have been visible in the 

 London Zoological Gardens, and a pair owned by Mr. 

 Townsend appeared at some of the London shows. " Russ 

 calls this species the " Ring Widow Finch," but Buffon 

 for some reason or other called it the " Queen-widow," 

 taking rcgia, I presume, to be an abbreviation for 

 regina. 



PARADISE WHYDAH (Steganura paradisea}. 



When in breeding plumage the male has the head, 

 including the throat, the back, the shoulders, wing- 

 coverts, tail, upper and under tail-coverts, and thighs 

 black ; flight-feathers brown ; the back and sides of neck 

 and the breast reddish mahogany, passing gradually into 

 buff- whitish on the abdomen ; rump white ; beak black ; 

 feet brown ; ;iris dark brown. The long tail-plumes 

 lengthen and grow somewhat narrower with age, vary- 

 ing consequently from five or six to over thirteen inche's, 

 a fact which has led to the supposition that two species 

 exist ; by saving and carefully measuring the plumes each 

 year this mistake is at once explained. . 



The female is reddish-brown above, and streaked 

 with black ; the crown pale buff-brownish with a few 

 short streaks and a broad blackish stripe on each side ; 

 below this is a whitish superciliary stripe, and below 

 this, from the eye to the edge of the ear-coverts, a 

 second blackish stripe ; the ear-coverts themselves and" 

 the cheeks are sandy-buff ; the wing and tail-feathers 

 are dark brown with paler borders, the under parts 

 dull white, stained with buff-brownish on the chest 

 and flanks ; the beak horn brownish ; the feet deeper in 

 colour; iris dark brown. 



When out of colour the male nearly resembles the 



