on the Violet-eared Waxbill. 297


in their reckless hurry to be five seconds ahead of their rivals in

proclaiming to the world that the King of the Cannibal Islands

has got a tooth-ache, send a wire to head-quarters one day which

has to be contradicted on the next by the announcement that it

is not tooth-ache his sable majesty is suffering from but only an

ordinary surfeit from too liberal indulgence in “ long-pig.” 4 ' If I

have erred in this direction in the present paper, Mr. Editor is

alone to blame.


I will not go so far as to say that the Violet-eared Waxbill

is as wanting in amiability as the Crimson Finch, but at some

seasons there is not much to choose between the two. When in

the garden aviary my old male, although without a mate of his

own species, seemed to be always persecuting some other bird,

now one now another, hunting it unceasingly. Last winter, in a

six-foot cage in my dining-room, my four Violet Ears were no

better. With a single peck one of them killed a Cuba Finch

which inadvertently had approached too near ; and after the two

pairs had been together some four months, each pair keeping to

its own end of the cage, and an armed neutrality having

apparently been established, each male being so strong that I

thought them quite capable of taking care of themselves in so

large a place (I had kept them together, at first also with other

birds, as I did not wish them to nest), one morning a male was

deliberately and brutally murdered ; and the widow had to be

instantly removed to save her from a like fate. And the females,

between themselves, are little better, and on several occasions

have had to be caged separately. Roughly speaking, during the

off season or seasons Violet-eared Waxbills may be more or less

quiet, especially if there be a lot of birds together—for in a way

it is a timid species. On the other hand, the more fit and keen

a pair may become for nesting the less reliable will their tempers

be. For a time it may be safe to have more than one of each sex

in the same place, but it is not a state of affairs that can be relied

upon to last; and the unpleasant part is that they seem to be so

uncertain, so treacherous. There is little or no actual fighting;

if ill-matched the stronger will chase the weaker, the old bird


* An old-time euphemism for .Roast Missionary—a delectable dish which seems to

have fallen into disrepute in these modern days of hypersentimentalism.—R.P.



