PLOCEID^ ESTRILDA 103 



blue ; below, throat, breast, sides and flanks light blue ; thighs, 

 centre of abdomen, under tail and wing-coverts light brown. 



Iris reddish-hazel ; bill lilac, the tip black ; legs and feet pale 

 brown. 



Length 4-75 ; wing 2-00 ; tail 2-10 ; tarsus 0-60 ; culmen 0-40. 

 Adult female. Besembles the male in plumage, but is a little 

 smaller. 



Young. According to Dr. Euss the downy young are of a soft 

 blue-grey colour. At a later stage they resemble the female, " but 

 are only soft blue on the breast, sides, rump and upper tail-coverts." 

 The irides, bill, legs and feet black. The change of colour takes 

 place between the fifth and eighth week. 



Estrilda angolensis only differs from the common Estrilda 

 phcenlcotis, Swains, of West, Central, and East Africa, in the male 

 not having the posterior ear-coverts crimson, as in the latter. The 

 females resemble one another. 



Distribution. Fairly common in Natal, Zululand, and Swaziland ; 

 abundant throughout the greater part of the Transvaal, as in the 

 neighbourhood of Rustenburg, ranging into Portuguese East Africa, 

 Matabili and Mashona Lands, and extending north of the Zambesi 

 into Nyasaland and Mosambique. In Cape Colony and the Orange 

 Free State in the Orange River Valley ; ranging northward through 

 Bechuanaland to Lake Ngami and the Okavango River, but not 

 reaching Damara or Great Namaqua Land, according to Andersson. 

 Habits. These beautiful little Waxbills are usually met with 

 in small parties, but occasionally in autumn, after the young have 

 flown, in very large flocks. They prefer localities which are partly 

 open, partly overgrown with scrub or low trees, and are specially 

 fond of scattered mimosa bushes, in which they can take refuge if 

 disturbed when feeding on the ground on their favourite grass-seeds. 

 When frightened they rise with a shrill twittering to take shelter 

 in the nearest bushes. In spring both male and female sing not 

 unpleasantly. Although the adults appear to subsist entirely on 

 grass-seeds, the young, before they leave the nest, are fed on small 

 grubs and insects. The nest is invariably built in a bush, often in 

 a low mimosa, and is generally placed in a fork at a height of from 

 three to eight or nine feet. At first sight it looks like a ball of 

 dried grass carelessly thrown into a bush ; on investigation a small 

 side entrance, nearly concealed by the projecting ends of grass- 

 stalks, may be found, leading to the interior which is smoothly and 

 warmly lined with finer dried grass and feathers. Three or four 



