104 



THE AMANDAVA. 



Fringilla amandava, LINNJEUS; Le Bengali Piquet^, Burpon ; Der Cetiegerte 

 Bengalist, BECHSTKIN. 



THIS beautiful little bird, which is brought to Europe ^ 

 great numbers from Bengal, Java, Malacca, and other tropics 

 countries of Asia, is only four inches long, of which the taji 

 measures one and a third. Most ornithologists class it with 

 the sparrows, hut it seems to me that it belongs rather to the 

 grosbeaks. Its beak is short and thick, being only four lines 

 in length, and the diameter at the base measuring three. Its 

 colour is deep bright red ; the iris is also red ; the feet are six 

 lines in height, and of a pale flesh-colour ; in the male the head 

 and under part of the body are of a fiery red, the upper part of 

 a dark grey, but the feathers have a broad red edge, so that 

 this colour seems to prevail ; thus the edge of the feathers on 

 the rump make it appear of a brilliant orange, though, like the 

 belly, it is properly black ; the feathers of the back, tail, sides 

 of the breast and belly, the wing-coverts, hinder quill-feathers, 

 and both tail-coverts, are terminated at the tip with shining 

 white spots, which are largest on the hinder quill-feathers, and 

 larger wing-coverts, the colour of which is otherwise black. 



The female is one third smaller than the male ; part of the 

 upper mandible is black ; the head and upper part of the body, 

 including the wing-coverts, are of a dark ash-colour ; the fea- 

 thers on the rump have only an orange edge, with a light tip ; 

 the cheeks are of a light grey ; the under part of the body is 

 pale sulphur, the pen-feathers blackish ; the greater and lesser 

 wing-coverts are finely speckled with white ; the tips of the 

 tail-feathers are greyish white. 



The male varies in its colours for several years before it 

 permanently acquires those above described : it may be seen 

 with the back grey, slightly tinted with red, the belly black, 

 speckled with yellow; others with the back reddish grey, 

 spotted with bright red, and the belly of a sulphur yellow, 

 with black rings, and more or less speckled, &c. 



OBSERVATIONS. These birds are as sociable as the \vaxbills ; if there 

 should be twenty or thirty in the same cage, they perch close against one 

 another on the same perch; and, what is more singular they never sinjr 



