FIXC II KS AXD NUNS. 2.'>7 



is light chestnut color, with a broad black band across the middle of the breast, the 

 lower part being pure white. Male and female are marked about alike. 



The Cinereous Waxbill, from the African coast, is another beautiful small Finch, 

 and probably more difficult to obtain than any heretofore mentioned. He has a 

 delicate soft lavender or pale slate-color all over the body. The lower part of the 

 back and the tail are purple, and the beak crimson. A line of black extends from 

 the beak beyond the eye. His length is about two inches and three-quarters. 

 These birds have been bred in cages in Germany, but successful rearing has been 

 so rare that the birds cannot be commended as good breeders. My experience with 

 the Cinereous Waxbill is, that he is most enjoyable in the aviary ; being very pretty, 

 sprightly, and playful, and having a soft, charming little song. 



The small African Finches are brought to America principally by captains of 

 barks plying between the West Coast and Boston. Negroes catch these birds in 

 the interior of the country, perhaps one hundred miles up the river from the coast, 

 and bring them in lots of fifty to one hundred, and barter for "solid gold gentle- 

 men's " watch-chains, " stove-pipe hats," and paper collars. 



As many of the negroes wear few or no clothes, the watch-chains cannot, under 

 these circumstances, be attached to any apparel, but are used as bracelets and 

 necklaces ; and a dozen paper collars will adorn each leg as bangles. Sometimes 

 a nude, burly specimen is seen, who considers himself in full dress when wearing 

 a stove-pipe hat perched on his left ear. His appearance in the village-streets on 

 the coast is apt to have a scattering effect. The captains also carry ' ' Old Medf ord 

 rum," and trade a pint of it for the first ten birds: then, when the negro is under 

 its influence, they take the other ninety, and drop the seller over the bark's stern, 

 perhaps a mile from shore. As pure Africans cannot be drowned, the bird-trapper, 

 after floating hither and yonder for some hours, too intoxicated to guide himself, 

 is finally tossed on the beach, where the hot sand and a tropic sun overcome the 

 pacifying effects of the liquor, and make him again a perfect savage. 



On the bark the Finches are put in wooden boxes with wire fronts, three feet 

 long, three feet deep, and ten inches high, having perches arranged closely to- 

 gether in amphitheatrical order ; so that any one looking into the wire front sees 

 a solid mass of faces and breasts of the eight hundred small birds packed closely 

 together, tier above tier, palest turquoise-blue Finches, with the ruby Avadavats 

 on either side ; and above and below are the delicate lavender Waxbills, brilliant 

 Fire Finches, and Bishop Finches arrayed in gorgeous orange apparel. If only 

 one bird in every eight is singing, the chorus of a full hundred voices makes the 

 old, sea-battered, rough box rival in sweetness the polished rosewood music-boxes 

 from Geneva. 



Frequently the Finch-boxes are brought over on the upper deck ; and at such 

 times, when a hurricane suddenly blows up, box and Finches have been washed 

 overboard, and tossed from crest to crest of the billows for an hour before a boat's 

 crew could leave the ship for the rescue. Of course, many of the birds perished. 

 When they first arrive in America, they are in rough feather and bad order ; because 

 the boxes are overcrowded, and in a filthy condition, and the seed used during the 

 voyage the cheapest grade. Clean brass cages, an abundance of room, and the 

 best quality of white French millet-seeds, soon make them look as finely as when 



