90 GARDEN AND AVIARY BIRDS. 



The Zebra Finch is not common in the Calcutta Bazar, 

 but may be obtained at times, and is always worth get- 

 ting as it is one of the easiest birds to breed in captivity 

 and propagates as freely as a Sparrow. The nest is not 

 built in a hole, but in the branches of a bush ; a small 

 cage with the door removed will be readily accepted as a 

 substitute. The eggs are pure white. Zebra Finches will 

 live well on canary and millet, but need egg-food when 

 breeding. At all times some green food, such as seeding 

 grass, green paddy, lettuce, &c., should be supplied. 

 The cock has a very funny little song, quite unmusical, 

 but strangely metrical ; it is a stanza of four lines, so to 

 speak, the last much the shortest. The ordinary note 

 of these birds, which they utter continuously, irresistibly 

 reminds one of those toys which squeak when they are 

 pinched. 



THE AVADAVAT (Sporoeginthus amandava), the Lai 

 Munia, or simply Lai, of the natives, is a very familiar 

 representative of the Waxbills, very beautiful tiny Finches 

 with red beaks of only moderate size. They are very 

 sociable and have pretty little voices. 



The Avadavat is a very small bird, barely exceeding 

 four inches ; in colour the cock is very handsome, being 

 nearly all red with white spots. But this plumage, in 

 which he is figured on Plate I, Fig. 3, is only borne during 

 the breeding season ; at other times he resembles the hen, 

 which is always brown above and buff below, with a touch 

 of red above the tail and a few white spots on the wings. 

 Both have red bills and flesh-coloured feet. The young 

 birds are plain brown with black bills. 



