THE GREEN AMADUVADK. 101 



periment of turning it out ; though my experience with the commoner 

 Indian Amaduvade greatly tempted me to risk it.* 



Jerdon says of this Green Waxbill "I have seen it in the jungles 

 north of Nagpore, on the high land near Seonee, on the Pachmarri 

 range of hills, rather abundant, and on the Vindhian range of hills 

 near Mhow. It has also been found at Omerkantak, near the source 

 of the Nerbudda, and in other parts of Central India ; and I am told 

 that it occurs in Oudh, and other parts of Northern India, in the 

 Pindooa Dhoon according to Col. Tytler. It is occasionally caught 

 and caged at Kamptee, Saugor, and Mhow. It associates in tolerably 

 large flocks, with a low chirping note, and keeps much to the woods." 



The chirping note referred to by Jerdon, is probably its call-note, 

 a high " hip-tsip " ; I have not heard the cock bird sing; or, if so, the 

 song cannot have been sufficiently remarkable to arrest my attention. 



Singularly enough, Gates calls this the " Green Munia," though 

 in what its resemblance to a Mannikin consists it would be hard to 

 say : he writes as follows : " In the Raipoor district it breeds, I believe, 

 from October to the middle of January, and probably again in the 

 early part of the rains, in sugar-cane fields, or perhaps amongst the 

 dense jungle-grass that fringes, in most localities, the banks of streams 

 and rivers." He then quotes the following interesting notes from the 

 pen of Mr. F. R. Blewitt : 



" For years I have tried to secure the eggs of 5. formosa, but 

 without success. When at Saugor, in the month of May, in a sugar- 

 cane field, a favourite resort of this Waxbill, my men discovered two 

 nests one complete, and the other all but finished built on, and 

 firmly attached to, the stalk end of two or three of the upper leaves. 

 They were somewhat oblong in shape, and very neatly and compactly 

 made. The interior lining was of fine grass, the exterior of coarse 

 grass and long strips of only sugar-cane leaves, well interwoven with 

 the coarse grass. The men told me that the birds had deserted the 

 nests, but, on inspection, I had reason to discredit their statement. 



"Two years ago, in January, my men shot, on the banks of a 

 stream here in high grass, a young bird that had just left the nest. 

 Every search was made all along the bank of the nuddee for nests, 

 but unsuccessfully. It would thus appear that 5. formosa breeds twice 

 a year." 



Later, however, Mr. Blewitt did succeed in getting eggs. He 

 says : 



* Since writing the above, I have put the hardiness of this Waxbill to the test, and find it 

 absolutely indifferent to cold: in the winter of 1894-5, the thermometer registered no less than 21 

 degrees of frost, without affecting this or the commoner Indian species of Amaduvade. A. (',.!! 



