IO


his operations and go for larger or more valuable game, or he

should have had his liberty long since.


At the same time, we should no doubt be doing the

Wagtail family a gross injustice if we put them all down as

vicious and dangerous ; but it is as well to have before us the

fact that high living, and a plentiful supply of mealworms and

blackbeetles, may make the best regulated Wagtail develop

murderous tendencies.



REVIEWS.


Foreign Finches in Captivity, by Arthur G. Butler, Ph.D., etc. y

(A. Reeve 6 s Co., 6, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden'). Part V.


We have little but praise for the newly issued part of this

admirable work, which fully maintains the high level of its

predecessors. Dr. Butler continues his account of the Waxbills

with a description of the Cordon-bleu, of which a very beautiful

and life-like illustration is given. Our experience of this

species leads us to believe that it is far more easily kept in

confinement than is usually supposed. Dr. Russ says it is

“ almost the most delicate of all Ornamental Finches. The

“ hens die with the slightest fluctuations of temperature, and in

“ the nesting season, unhappily, frequently from egg-laying.”

Dr. Butler, too, lost by far the greater number of his specimens.

We have, however, kept several pairs of Cordons-bleus and found

them, without exception, long lived and healthy ; but they were

never exposed to a temperature below 45 0 .


The author mentions the nearly allied species, Estrilda

angolensis ; but we think he is mistaken in saying that it has not

been imported as a cage. bird. To the best of our recollection,

there was a pair at the Dondon Zoological Gardens in 1893.


That very interesting bird, the Australian Fire-finch or

Crimson Finch, is fully described ; but it is a pity that the female

is not illustrated as well as the male : the sexes of this species

differ so much, and the females are so seldom imported, that

the absence of an illustration distinctly detracts from the

value of the work. On the other hand, both sexes of the

Australian Fire-tailed Finch are represented, though male and

female are alike. Several very rare species are included in this

part, notably the Painted Finch (Emblem a pictd) and the Red¬

faced Finch (.Pytelia afro).


Dr. Butler’s work is commendably free from the careless

and unscientific writing which disfigures so many popular works



