48 
The Orange-cheeked Waxbill. 
aggravated by the variation in intensity of colouration common 
to all species; so that securing a true pair is not always an 
easy matter. If from a crowd of adults a large and brightly 
coloured specimen be picked out, and then a smaller and less 
intensely coloiu'ed specimen, of course always supposing both 
are adult birds, there is a reasonable prospect of securing male 
and female; still errors of judgment occur and these are not by 
any means always fraudulent. Thus the female may be 
described as being slightly smaller than the male, and her ear- 
patches, rump and upper tail-coverts of a slightly less intense 
hue. In my breeding pair the male had larger and brighter 
coloured ear-patches, and his rump and upper tail-coverts were a 
sort of orange-crimson (but I think this latter feature was due 
to him being an aviary moulted specimen), and he also was 
perceptably larger than his mate. 
In the Az'iary : While restless and fidgety in confined 
quarters, I have found it to be fairly bold and vivacious among a 
mixed crowd in a roomy, naturally-planted aviary. I certainly 
know of no more charming sight than to see a pair, or more, of 
these wee birds flitting to and fro, butterfly-like, amid the 
herbage and bushes in a large natural aviary. So long as there 
is an abundance of seeding" grass and weeds growing in the 
aviary they visit the seed-hoppers but seldom, and the beauty 
and gracefulness of their movements, when clinging in everv 
conceivable position, to a slender panicle of seed, wliich sways 
and bends beneath even their slight weight, is beyond words. 
Their beauty is undeniable, and they always charm and interest 
however well acquainted one is with them. 
Nesting : Under this heading 1 shall give the details of 
my own nesting success, for it was as pleasureable to me, if 
not more so, than the breeding of other and rarer species had 
been . The details I can give are not numerous, for they were 
only one pair in a large wilderness-aviary containing a crowd of 
over 100 hardbills and softbills. 
The male was in the aviary the previous year and had 
wintered out of doors; the female was a new acquisition, a gift 
from Dr. Hopkinson with other birds, part of one of his 
personally imported consignments. I had been very busy that 
