196



The little book is got up in a very attractive form : the

paper and print are all that can be desired ; it will be found a

careful and trustworthy guide to the neophyte in aviculture, and

a necessary addition to every avicultural library.


This too-favourable review is from the pen of a well-known member of the Council.— Ed.



CORRESPONDENCE.



THE BLUE AND FAWN WAX BILL.


Sir,—S ix j^ears ago there came into my possession (as I thought) a

pair of Cordon Bleus. The cock died three daj^s after, but I flattered

myself that I had, in the hen, a champion bird, for it was extra large, and

had more blue colouring than usual.


A short time after this, I paid a visit to the Zoological Society’s

Gardens, and was surprised to see in the Parrot house a cage containing

what looked like four very fine hen Cordon Bleus, and I remarked to the

keeper what a nice sample tliej^ were, but that I had a hen quite as large.

To my surprise, he said they were quite new (I have quite forgotten the

Latin name) that he had been there many j'ears, and the Society had never

had any in their possession before.


Not knowing how to designate mine, I call it the Blue and Fawn

Waxbill.* It lived peaceabl}’ with my Cordons until last year, when they

began to nest : then the two cock Cordons nearly killed it. They would

get the little fellow at the bottom of the cage and unmercifully fight it.

One morning after one of these scrimmages, I caught the poor thing and

caged it separately, but it was a most wretched-looking object, very puffy,

several feathers gone, and wings drooping. Happening to have the rose

trees swarming with aphides, I fed the invalid with some of the finest from

the point of a camel’s-hair brush ; and he knew what was prepared for him

directly I tapped the tin of insects, and would come to the side of the cage

to be fed. For quite a week he moped on the perch, then the turn came,

and he began to eat mealworms cut up very small: this was put on to a

mixture of crumbled sponge cake and preserved yolk of egg.


I do not recollect seeing any mention made of this bird in the

Avicultural Magazine. As it has lived with me nearly as long as some

Cordon Bleus, perhaps some members might like to give it a trial. The

new introduction is strong and healthy, and has not lost his neck-plumage

like some of the Waxbill tribe do. The staple food is white, Indian, and

spray millet, and he is a regular Oliver Twist for rose grubs and aphides —

constantly “ asking for more.”


W. T. Cateeugh.



It is 110 doubt Estrilda angolensis. —Ed.



