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COMMON AlNlA.r)UVADE . 6 ?.
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THE AMADUVADE WAXBILL.
SporceginUtns amaiidava, LINN,
r^^HE common Amadiivade, or " Avadavat " as it is frequently called, is a native
of India, Cochin China, Siam, Java and other Malayan Islands. It is imported
in such quantities that occasionally some of the small dealers find it necessan' to
part with their stock at a few shillings per dozen, in order to save the expense
of their keep : this is howe^'er an extreme case.
Col. S«-inhoe informs me that in Bomba3-, the native Bird-catchers will sell
them at the rate of about one halfpenny apiece, when freshly taken; they are,
however, usually put up with Spice-Finches in native wicker cages ' containingperhaps
three dozen birds and are then sold in the bazaars at fully double the
price. I received one of these cages in 1892 from Bombay, but when it reached
me 0UI3- half the birds {i.e. ten Spice-Finches and eight Amaduvades) were living
and two of the Waxbills died subsequently, but the remainder \7hich I turned
loose in an unheated a^'iar^• are still in perfect health.
The cock Amaduvade in breeding plumage is an extremely beautiful little bird
with a chEirming, though somewliat brief song, reminding one of a bugle-call
Abo\-e, the general tone is copper brown; the feathers of the lower back and tailcoverts
copper red ; marked near the tip with a round white spot; tail feathers
primar3- coverts, and flights, brownish black; the outer tail-feathers and inner
secondaries with white terminal spots; the sides of the face and throat shininocopper
red, the breast somewhat darker and spotted with white; abdomen and under
tail-coverts white; ^ving-co^^erts below white, flights smoky, with greyish inner ^^'eb
Length 4,-1, inches. Beak crimson; legs flesh-coloured; iris orange-red.
The female above is brown, with darker ^vings ; small white spots on the wino--
coverts and inner secondaries; the lower back and upper tail-coverts darker coppered
than in the male; edged and spotted with white; the lores, eyelid and feathers
behind the eye black; a whitish streak below the eye; sides of face greyish ; throat
pale buff-, becoming browner on the breast ; lower breast and abdomen orange
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