106 PLOCEIDM ESTEILDA 



Iris red-brown ; bill crimson, the ridge and gonys black ; legs 

 and feet flesh-coloured. 



Length 3-80 ; wing 1-80 ; tail 1-35 ; tarsus 0'50 ; culmen 0-35. 



The amount of orange-red on the lower surface of body increases 

 with age. An older male has the under surface of body, below the 

 throat, of a bright scarlet ; the sides and flanks barred with olive and 

 pale red ; under tail-coverts deep scarlet ; sides of face orange-red. 



Adult female. Has no crimson eyebrow ; sides of face olive- 

 brown like the head ; under surface of body yellow, only the under 

 tail- coverts scarlet. 



Length 3-50; wing 1-70; tail 1-20. 



Young male. Eesembles the female on the under surface of 

 body. 



Distribution. Locally distributed throughout the Ethiopian 

 Eegion. Resident in Natal and the Transvaal. Not found in Cape 

 Colony or on the west coast of South Africa. 



Habits. These very beautiful little Waxbills differ somewhat in 

 their habits from the common Estrilda astrilda. They prefer the 

 borders of streams and marshes, where there is a thick growth of 

 bushes and reeds, to the more open grass lands, and they are much 

 shyer and more easily alarmed. In Natal, where they are not 

 uncommon from May to December, I have generally met with 

 them in flocks of no great size, feeding on the ground on grass-seeds, 

 but taking refuge in bushes if disturbed. When feeding they keep 

 up a continuous chirping. 



This species, which is known to dealers as the " Zebra Waxbill" 

 from its striped sides, is a common and favourite cage-bird in 

 Europe. Under favourable conditions it breeds very readily in 

 confinement and is wonderfully prolific. A pair in the aviary of 

 Dr. Eey, of Halle, hatched out fifty-four young in the course of a 

 single year ; not content with this, the hen laid an additional sixty- 

 seven eggs which were taken from her. The following account 

 of this species in confinement, by Dr. Russ, is from Dr. Butler's 

 " Foreign Finches in Captivity " : 



"The love-dance is comical; the song scarcely more than a 

 sparrow-like, yet not inharmonious chirp, repeated an innumerable 

 quantity of times in the early morning during the nesting season. 

 Nest in a little Hartz cage, with basket nest, or in a little lined 

 nest-basket, or in a very small Friihauf's nest-box open in front, 

 always high up : somewhat negligent, as compared with those of 

 the nearly allied Astrilds ; of strips of paper and bast, cotton threads, 



