PLOCEID.E ESTRILDA 101 



Iris reddish ; bill black, bluish at base ; feet black. 



Length 4-60 ; wing 2-10 ; tail 2-35 ; tarsus O55 ; culmen 0'35. 



Adult female. Slightly duller in colour. 



Young, Browner, with less crimson in their plumage. 



Distribution. South Africa to the north of the Orange and Vaal 

 Eivers, ranging northward through Great Namaqua and Damara 

 Land to Lake Ngami ; very generally distributed in the Trans- 

 vaal, Bechuanaland and Khodesia, extending as far north as Masai 

 Land and Central Africa. 



Habits. Very like those of the common E. astrilda. In the 

 Transvaal during winter these pretty little birds feed on the ground 

 in small flocks, generally near bushes, to which they fly if disturbed. 

 Their food consists almost entirely of grass seeds. They have a 

 low, gentle twittering note, frequently repeated when they are 

 searching for food and also as they take flight. Towards spring the 

 flock break up and they remain in pairs until the following autumn. 



9t& * 



54. Estrilda incana. South African Grey Waxbill. 



Estrelda incana, Sundevall, CEfvers, 1850, p. 98 ; Layard, B. S. Afr. 



p. 197 (1867) ; Sharpe, ed. Layard's B. S. Afr. p. 470 (1884) ; Shelley, 



Ibis, 1886, p. 329. 



Lagonosticta incana, Sliarpe, Cat. B. M. xiii, p. 284 (1890). 

 Estrilda incana, Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 30 (1896). 



Description. Adult male. Above blue-grey; the lower back, 

 rump, and upper tail-coverts crimson ; outer web of quills like the 

 back, inner web dusky, the primaries edged with grey ; tail blackish ; 

 forehead, streak through eye and chin black ; lores, face, and throat 

 grey ; breast and abdomen deeper grey ; under tail-coverts blackish ; 

 axillaries pale grey ; under wing-coverts white. 



Iris red ; bill grey ; feet black. 



Length 4-00; wing 1'95 ; tail 1-95 ; tarsus 0-60; culmen -35. 



Adult female. Kesembles the male in plumage. 



Distribution. On the east coast of South Africa from Natal to 

 Mosambique and Nyasaland. Not rare near Durban and Pinetown 

 in Natal and Eschowe in Zululand. Between Lake Nyasa and 

 Tanganyika (Shelley). 



Habits. Captain Shelley found this Waxbill nesting in Natal ; 

 he writes in the Ibis : " Although it is far from common at 

 Durban, on the 8th of March I took one of their nests containing 

 two pure white eggs. It was placed in a creeper overhanging the 



