Freely Imported, Species and their Treatment. 3i55 
imaginable position, to a slender stemmed panicle of seed, 
which sways and bends beneath even their slight weight, is 
simply indescribable. Their beauty is undenia1)le and they 
always charm and interest, however well one may be acquain- 
ted with them. 
\Miile I shall not attempt to describe the plumage of 
so well known a species, I propose making a few remarks 
as to the plumage of the sexes. My male (a fully adult 
bird), passed latt winter out-of-doors, in a large aviary, with 
a shelter shed attached for such as choose to avail themselves 
of it; he is a fine, large, well coloured specimen; his mate 
is one of a dozen mixed Waxbills, kindly presented to me by 
Dr. Hopkinson, out of the consignment he landed in May last 
and maj be a much younger bird. When one sees them side 
by side the male is perceptiby larger, he is also, if any- 
thing, (more brightly coloure 1, his orange cheeks or ear patcl.e;;, 
are larger than those of his mate and the ventral region of 
the male is distinctly orange, this area in the female being 
merely tinted with orange. I give these distinctions for what 
they are worth, they are all taken from one pair, but if they 
should prove constant it ought not to be difficult to pick out a 
pair, from a crowd of adult birds. 
Now to return to the nesting episode, I fear I can give 
very little data concerning it, for during August and Septem- 
ber I have been at home very few week-ends. Up to the 
middle of July I had noticed no attempts at nesting, then 
about July 15th I noticed them attempting to breed in a 
Rambler -rose, about two feet from the ground, l)ut the nest 
was never completed; this rose had a number of long laterals, 
bowing down .to the ground.forming a more or less dense thicket, 
with the tall grass growing beneath it, and the Orange -cheeks 
were observed to "be spending most oi' their time therein, but 
I concluded the attraction was blight, and grass seed. One 
afternoon in August (Gth ,) I was in the aviary, and con-' 
sidered the rose was getting too untidy and I began to tie 
it up to the standard, when out flew the Orange -cheeks, and 
a searcli revealed a spherical nest, about six inches in di- 
ameter, at the foot of a tussock of coarse grass, which was 
some twelve inches high and bent over almost to the ground, 
