122 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



times more or less of a bully ; and, in the breeding- season, is quite 

 unbearable as a companion to Waxbills ; constantly pulling their work 

 to pieces, or turning out the builders, and using a nest as a warm 

 roosting-place in which to pass the night. 



Mr. Wiener gives no additional information respecting the Lavender 

 Finch, and as all that he tells us is evidently quoted from Dr. Russ' 

 works, it would seem as though he had not kept the species : but 

 this can hardly be the case with so cheap and readily obtainable a 

 bird. 



The illustration of the hen-bird on my plate, is taken from one 

 which died in uiy outside aviary, at the approach of the winter of 

 1893-4. In March, 1895, I purchased two others, one of which died 

 in the following winter, but the other is still living, as I go to press, 

 in March, 1898. 



White millet, millet in the ear, canary and grass-seed form the 

 food of this species in confinement. In its wild state it doubtless 

 feeds on the seeds of weeds and grasses which it obtains when on the 

 ground. 



THE VIOLET-EARED WAXBILL. 



Granatina granatina, LjNN. 



I NHABITS South Africa, eastward to the Zambesi, and perhaps to 

 1 Angola westward. It is a very beautiful little bird, but is so 

 little imported that I have never seen specimens offered for sale. 



The general colouring of the male above is soft chestnut brown, 

 greyer on the lower back; the wing- coverts and flight feathers greyish- 

 brown, with redder margins; upper tail-coverts bright metallic blue; 

 tail feathers black, slightly bluish on the margins; base of forehead 

 bright blue, continued as a narrow line above the eyes; lores dusky; 

 eyebrow, ear-coverts, and sides of face bright lilac; base of cheeks and 

 front of throat black, gradually diffused hind ward; under surface chest- 



