The Orange-cheeked Waxbill. 
49 
summer, and away from home many of its week ends. Up to 
the middle of July no attempts at nesting were observed; about 
July 15th I noticed them attempting" to nest in a rambler rose 
about 2 feet above the ground; apparently they were interfered 
with by some of the other birds, and the nest was never com- 
pleted. This rose had a number of long laterals, their tips resting 
upon the ground and forming a more or less dense uiicket with 
the tall grass beneath it, and the Urange-cheeks were later 
observed spending most of their time therein, but 1 concluded the 
attraction was blight and grass seed. One morning in August 
(6th, 1912) I was in the aviary and thought the rose to be too 
straggling, and began to prune and tie up, when out flew the 
Orange-cheeks, and a search revealed a spherical nest, about 6 
inches in diameter, at the foot of a tussock of grass, which was 
some 12 inches high and bent over almost to the ground, similar 
to a fountain spray and almost obscuring the nest; it is a marvel 
it was not trodden upon during the operation of tying up the 
rose. So cmmingly was it constructed and camouflaged that 
it was only after a very close search and examination and some 
disturbance of the growing grass, that the entrance hole was 
discovered, and but for the flying out of the birds it would not 
have been; the entrance hole was nearer the ground than the top 
of the nest, but the passage from it sloped upwards, the base of 
the nest actually resting upon the ground. The nest was a 
perfect sphere, very closely woven, outwardly of coarse g'rasses 
and hay, lined internally with fine hay, dandelion down, and 
feathers. The shell of the nest was nearly one inch thick, and 
judging by the appearance of the birds and the feel of the 
interior of the nest, after the young had flown, 1 conclude that 
even the abnormal rains of the month had failed to penetrate 
it, for though the base of the nest was on the ground, its interior 
was quite dry. 
It is difficult to state with exactness what the young- 
birds were reared on, owing to the variety of feeding stuffs 
required by such a mixed series — from a thrush to a sugar-bird — 
but from personal observation I am able to deduce that it was 
mainly upon millet, fresh grass and weed seeds and all the 
midges, etc., the parent birds could capture, together with what 
few mealworms they were able to snatch up among the 
