no FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



THE AMADUVADE WAXBILL. 



Sporteginthus amandava, LINN. 



THE common Amaduvade or "Avadavat" as it is frequently called, 

 is a native of India, Cochin China, Siam, Java and other Malayan 

 Islands. It is imported in such quantities that occasionally some of 

 the smaller dealers find it necessary to part with their stock at a few 

 shillings per dozen, in order to save the expense of their keep ; this 

 is, however, an extreme case. 



Col. Swinhoe informs me that in Bombay, the native Bird-catchers 

 will sell them at the rate of about one halfpenny apiece, when freshly 

 taken ; they are, however, usually put up with Spice-Finches in native 

 wicker cages containing perhaps three dozen birds, and are then sold 

 in the bazaars at fully double the price. I received one of these 

 cages in 1892 from Bombay, but when it reached me only half the 

 birds (i.e. ten Spice- Finches and eight Amaduvades) were living, and 

 two of the Waxbills died subsequently, but some of the remainder, 

 which I turned loose in an unheated aviary, are still in perfect health. 



The cock Amaduvade, in breeding plumage, is an extremely beautiful 

 little bird with a charming, though somewhat brief song, reminding 

 one of a bugle-call. Above, the general tone is copper brown ; the 

 feathers of the lower back and tail-coverts copper red ; marked near 

 the tip with a round white spot ; tail feathers, primary coverts, and 

 flights, brownish black ; the outer tail feathers and inner secondaries 

 with white terminal spots ; the sides of the face and throat shining 

 copper- red, the breast somewhat darker and spotted with white ; 

 abdomen and under tail-coverts white; wing-coverts below white, flights 

 smoky, with greyish inner web. Length 4^ inches. Beak crimson ; 

 legs flesh-coloured ; iris orange-red. 



The female above is brown, with darker wings ; small white spots 

 on the wing-coverts and inner secondaries ; the lower back and upper 

 tail-coverts darker copper red than in the male; edged and spotted 

 with white; the lores, eyelid and feathers behind the eye black; a 

 whitish streak below the eye ; sides of face greyish ; throat pale buff, 

 becoming browner on the breast ; lower breast and abdomen orange 



