296 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



" My friend, Brehm, informed me, that the nests are either built 

 in small bushes, concealed or entirely surrounded with grass, between 

 the stems of the Durah, or even in the tall grass. Whether only the 

 hens incubate, I cannot satisfactorily ascertain. 



" In its disposition, and call-note, the Fire Finch has much in 

 common with the true Weaver-birds, but we never saw it on high 

 trees ; in the Autumn, especially, it keeps almost exclusively to the 

 corn-fields and wild grasses. A company of this restless, chattering 

 and quarrelsome bright coloured bird in the Durak fields, when they 

 are growing green and swelling with heavy ears, is one of the character- 

 istic pictures of the landscape of the subtropical region of the Nile. 

 From early morning they are busy feeding, climb extremely nimbly 

 over the stalks and sheaves of corn, stretch high up, chirping shrilly 

 and puffing out their plumage, and crack the hard maize seeds with 

 their powerful beaks. They rarely descend to the earth, moreover, I 

 have never been able to observe them drinking. The song is in- 

 significant in the extreme, somewhat Sparrow-like, the call-note a very 

 shrill rasping chirp." 



I have kept several pairs of this lovely species ; my first pair, 

 however, did not live long, but proved especially interesting from the 

 fact that the hen built her own nest, which she formed entirely out of 

 hay, attaching the first bents to a cup-shaped wire frame hanging up 

 in the cage : this nest was almost completed when both sexes un- 

 expectedly died on the same day. I, soon afterwards, purchased a 

 second pair, from Mr. Abrahams, both sexes of which are still living ; 

 but neither sex has ever shown the slightest inclination to build : the 

 female is very tame and will come to the front of the aviary at once, 

 if mealworms are being distributed : the male is a quiet peaceful bird, 

 occasionally pretending to quarrel with the male Napoleon Weaver, 

 but never actually toviching him ; it sings industriously when in colour, 

 puffing up its feathers, standing very erect and, at first, emitting 

 regular short notes, which sound like the feeding of young birds ; this 

 is followed by a sound, hurrisch-risch, which can be best imitated by 

 suddenly drawing a blind, attached to small brass rings running upon 

 a brass rod : I see nothing whatever to suggest Von Heuglin's definition 

 of " Sparrow-like " in any part of the song. 



Dr. Russ says : " In captivity the Orange Weaver resembles the 

 Napoleon Weaver in almost every respect. Owing to his glowing 

 colour, as well as his longevity in the cage, he is eqiially admired, 

 but only as a bird of beauty, for he offers just as little advantage in 

 song as in facility of nesting. If one begins to attempt breeding 



