144 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



agreeable and peaceful. Love-sport: The male hops around the hen 

 with its tail held obliquely sideways, in comical jumps. Call-note 

 melodious but monosyllabic. Arrives in the trade tolerably regularly 

 every year, but only in small numbers." 



I obtained my pair of this Waxbill, in August, 1892, for a few 

 shillings, from a friend who imported them, and turned them into my 

 coldest aviary ; the cock bird died within about a fortnight, if I 

 remember rightly, certainly very soon ; the hen, as already stated, 

 lived there for about a year. When grass in flower was thrown into 

 the aviary, this pretty little bird showed itself to be inordinately selfish, 

 driving away every other bird which approached it until it had eaten 

 its fill. Gouldian Finches were the only birds which seemed to have 

 the mastery over it. It would rush at a Goldfinch, Siskin, Amaduvade, 

 Zebra or Cherry-finch with closed beak, at the same time uttering a 

 sharp note something like " tsing" which never failed to frighten 

 them away : at other times, however, it was peaceable. Early in 1897 

 I purchased two pairs in good condition. 



Dr. Simpson bears out my view of the hardiness of this Waxbill; 

 he writes: "The Sydney Waxbills I have had about two years, they 

 are very pretty and inoffensive, and I do not think they deserve the 

 character which Wiener gives them, of being delicate. Mine have 

 always been perfectly healthy." 



"Wiener, by the bye, describes many birds as delicate, and liable 

 to die suddenly. I have kept the Green Bulbul, Tanagers, and many 

 coloured Parrakeet without difficulty. All of which, he says, are almost 

 impossible to keep alive." 



It is probable that Wiener took his cue from Dr. Russ, who also 

 considers this Waxbill less robust than other Australian species ; possibly 

 when kept in a highly heated bird-room this may be the case, though 

 my limited experience of /E. temporalis did not lead me to the same 

 conclusion, but then the conditions were utterly dissimilar. In another 

 respect, also, my experience differed from that of Dr. Russ; I found 

 the Sydney Waxbill extremely lively, more so than the Indian Amadu- 

 vades, and almost as active as the Cordon Bleu, though not quite. 

 Now Dr. Russ says, in his larger work: "Although Gould speaks of 

 the extraordinary liveliness of the Thorn Astrild, it appeared collectively 

 in the bird-room as a very quiet phlegmatic bird. At first, I imagined, 

 that the above-mentioned disposition was caused by a kind of craziness 

 due to bad treatment; subsequently, however, all which, in the course 

 of time, I procured, exhibited the same placid manner of life. During 

 the season of love they became altogether somewhat more lively, yet 



