104 PLOCEID^E ESTRILDA 



eggs are laid. These are pure white, and rather round in shape. 

 They average O70 by 0-55. Mr. Andersson found this Waxbill 

 nesting in Ondongo. A nest taken by him on the 2nd February, 

 1867, was constructed of grass, and had no internal lining. It was 

 built in a palm bush, six feet from the ground ; the eggs were 

 five in number. 



56. Estrilda granatina. Grenadine Waxbill. 



Fringilla granatina, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 318 (1766). 

 Estrelda granatina, Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 199 (1867). 

 UraBginthus granatinus, Gurney in Andersson' s B. Damara Land, p. 



180 (1872) ; Holub and Pelzeln, Orn. Sildafr. p. 129 (1882) ; Sharpe, 



ed. Layard's B. S. Afr. pp. 474, 850 (1884). 

 Granatina granatina, Sliarpe, Cat. B. M. xiii, p. 403 (1890) ; Butler, 



Foreign Finches, p. 130, pi. (1894) ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 29 (1896). 



Description. Adult male. Forehead and slight eyebrow blue ; 

 crown, neck all round, breast and flanks chestnut brown ; back and 

 wing-coverts paler chestnut brown ; spot before eye black ; sides of 

 face, ear-coverts and cheeks lilac ; throat black ; lower back and 

 centre of abdomen greyish-black ; rump, upper and under tail- 

 coverts bright blue ; wings brown, the under coverts reddish-buff ; 

 tail-feathers black edged with blue. 



Iris red ; bare skin round eye reddish ; bill red at tip, purple at 

 base ; legs and feet purplish. 



Length 5-80 ; wing 2-25 ; tail 2-80 ; tarsus O65 ; culmen 0-45. 



Adult female. Head ash-brown tinged with chestnut-red ; 

 throat white ; rest of under surface reddish-buff ; there is less blue 

 on the forehead and a duller lilac on the sides of face than in the 

 male ; rest of plumage like the male. 



Young. Like the female, but browner. 



Distribution. From Griqualand West and the Southern Trans- 

 vaal to the Zambesi Kiver, the Lake Ngami District and Damara 

 Land. 



Habits. These beautiful Waxbills appear never to congregate 

 in large flocks, but are either met with in small parties of five or six, 

 or more usually in pairs. They keep much to localities covered 

 with low bushes, and especially with scattered mimosas, and gener- 

 ally feed on the ground between the bushes, often on bare spots, on 

 grass- and other small seeds. 



