PLOCEIDJE LAGONOSTICTA 93 



tinged with crimson ; cheeks, throat, breast, and sides of body 

 crimson ; some small white spots on the sides of body ; centre of 

 abdomen brownish-grey ; vent, under tail-coverts and thighs black ; 

 axillaries and under wing-coverts yellowish. 



Iris dusky ; upper mandible blackish, lower ash-coloured, pink 

 at the base ; legs and feet dusky. 



Length 4-75; wing 2-00; tail 1-90; tarsus 0-60; culmen 0-45. 



Adult female. Duller in colour; the abdomen brownish-yellow; 

 the under tail-coverts edged with ashy. The ear-coverts grey, 

 untinged with crimson ; a crimson spot in front of eye, but no 

 eyebrow. 



Length 4-40; wing 1-87 ; tail 1-75. 



Young. Eesemble the female. 



Distribution. South-east Africa to the east of Grahamstown, 

 ranging as far north as the Limpopo River. Natal and the Trans- 

 vaal. Not found on the West Coast. 



Habits. These Ruddy Waxbills are not at all uncommon in 

 many parts of the Eastern Colony and Natal, on rough pasture 

 lands, grass veldts, and about the outskirts of the bush. They feed 

 on the ground on grass seeds, and are generally in pairs, occasionally 

 in small parties, but they never seem to form large flocks like the 

 common " Rooibeckies." They have a gentle, twittering note, 

 uttered both when they are feeding and when in flight. The nest 

 is built in a tuft of long grass, and is well concealed, usually from 

 six inches to a foot off the ground, surrounded on all sides, and 

 covered in by the drooping blades. It is circular in shape, with a 

 side entrance, and is constructed of fairly coarse grass stems loosely 

 twined together. The interior is lined with feathers. The eggs, 

 from four to six in number, are pure white, and average 0*58 

 X 0-45. 



48. Lagonosticta jamesoni. Jameson's Ruddy Waxbill. 



Lagonosticta jamesoni, Shelley, Ibis, 1882, p. 355; id. Ibis, 1886, 

 p. 324 ; id. B. Afr. i, p. 31 (1896) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii, p. 283, 

 pi. 9, fig. 1 (1890) ; id. ed. Layard's B. 8. Afr. p. 475 (1884). 



Description. Adult male. " Very closely allied to L. rubricata ; 

 the red portion of the plumage paler and of a pinker hue ; the 

 white spots on the sides of the chest scarcely visible ; sides of the 

 head rosy pink like the chest ; upper parts tinted with that colour, 



