THE VIOLET-EARED WAXBILL. 125 



be in transporting them to the ship which was to bring them to 

 Bnrope. This gentleman, though not a young man, had himself 

 brought a heavy case of biitterflies with him to England, and I pointed 

 out to him that a cage of birds would be lighter, and certainly quite 

 as easy of export as that packing-case ; the butterflies might be carried 

 unset in a very small compass, and a valuable consignment of Violet- 

 eared Waxbills and other saleable birds, substituted for the heavy box, 

 in which his pinned insects had been brought home. In the interest 

 of science, it is to be hoped that he will adopt my suggestion when 

 he next visits Europe. 



Dr. Russ tells us that " the first living bird of this species which 

 was brought to Europe, must have been that received, in Paris, in 

 1754, by the Marquise de Pompadour. She was known to be an 

 enthusiastic friend of foreign birds, and kept this Astrild alive for 

 three years." 



" Vieillot designates the Grenadine as one of the most beautiful 

 and elegant, but also most delicate of all these little Finches ; he 

 praises its gentle and yet so lively disposition and its lovely song. 

 With regard to the latter, both ancient and recent writers, namely, 

 Vieillot, after him Reichenbach, and then again Von Heuglin, are 

 certainly not making assumptions, as they almost uniformly praise 

 these little Ornamental Finches as excellent singers. I invariably 

 quote such statements as a matter of course ; but in all the instances, 

 in which, according to the unanimous declarations of all breeders and 

 observers, the said bird in captivity either does not sing or scarcely 

 enough to be worth mentioning, I have recorded the latter as being 

 simply matter of fact." 



Wiener says that this bird lived in his aviary for nearly two 

 years in a very moderate temperature, and sang merrily and sweetly, 

 with a thermometer between 50 and 55 degrees Fahr. He parted 

 with him to enable a friend at Baden-Baden, who had a hen- bird, to 

 try to breed the species. The bird travelled from England to Germany 

 in February without any ill-effects. 



Illustrations from a living example in the Zoological Society's 

 Gardens, and from skins in the Natural History Museum. 



