THE



Avicultural Magazine


THE JOURNAL OF THE

AVICULTURAL SOCIETY



Fifth Series .—VoL I.- — No. 12 —All rights reserved. DECEMBER, 1936.



THE AUSTRALIAN WAXBILL


(Mguitha temporalis)


These birds were bred for the first time in the United Kingdom by

Mr. Reginald Phillips, who published an account of his success in the

Avicultural Magazine for 1902, and was awarded the Society’s

Medal. Three young were reared in a bulky bottle-shaped nest with a

side entrance made of grasses usually gathered green, lined inside

with fine grasses and feathers, and fixed in a forked stick. The eggs

.are pointed oval, surface slightly glossy, pure white in colour. They

kept their young so closely hidden that it was not until the 20th July

that he knew for certain young had been reared. The immature

birds may readily be distinguished from the adults by their black

bills and generally duller colouring, but chiefly by the absence of the

red-brow stripe.


On the 1st August, Mr. Phillips noticed one young bird showing

Ted on the brow, and by 10th September all three were coming into

colour. The account does not say if any special food was supplied to

the parent birds.


E. F. C.



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