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77zi? Liwender-Finch. 127
Dr. RITSS has a number of trivial names for tliis Waxbill; that at the head
of his remarks on the species is Das blaugraue Rothschwdnzchen (the little blue-grey
Red-tail), he says : — " The beauty of this lovely and delicate little bird is quite
remarkable, and so forcibly recalls the Tropics in the splendour of its colouring,
that every friend of birds, even one who has the very slightest knowledge of the
bird-world, must recognize it as an inhabitant of distant zones."
" T h e Red-tail only comes to us occasionally, although sometimes in considerable
numbers at once, and frequently fails to come for many a long day. The
dealers are not attached to the Red tails, since they commonly arrive badly
feathered and in a deplorable condition from the ships to the bird-shops, and when
forwarded on subsequently, die too readily in hosts from damp chills, &c. Kept
together in narrow cages, the Red-tails are continually plucking one another and
then succumb to every fluctuation of temperature whatsoever. In the bird-room,
or in a roomy flight-cage, with suitable care, they quickly regain their feathers
and verj' rarely become bald again. They should always be provided, in the flight
chamber, or if kept in pairs in a cage, with a suitable retreat for the night.
When they have recovered they are not so sensitive to cold as other apparently
less delicate birds, and moreover, when they begin nesting they show themselves
in their full beauty. Incessantly restless and brisk, graceful and ornamental,
throughout the whole day in perpetual motion. Their soft sibilant call-note, and
louder flute-like cries sound pleasing and melodious."
" A t the nesting-season the males quarrel fiercely; not more than one pair
should be kept in a room. Preparation for nesting:—A Hartz cage, hanging high,
with paper pasted outside, with an entrance-hole the size of a thaler (half-a-crown
would do equally well), and a basket-nest with linen stitched over it. Nest of
slender asparagus sprays, grasses, bast-fibres, and threads, spherical, with a narrow
entrance, and lined with soft feathers. Laying four to five eggs, shining, roundish
and very small. Nestling-doivn dark bluish, with blue-whitish wax-skin. Young
plumage faint bluish ash-grey; croup and tail blackish red; beak only red at the
tip, at the base dull flesh-coloured, the wax-skin large, beautiful bluish-white; feet
reddish horn-grey, joints 3'ellowish; eye black. Duration of the entire brood up to
the flight of the young barely four weeks. First reared in my bird-room, and
subsequently in a considerable number of others; this is, however, difficult, even
when flying freely, and in a small cage indeed scarcely attainable. Mules have
been reared with the small red Astrild."
"More tender, more shy, and yet more confiding than the Grey Astrild
{common African Waxbill), and, for example, not difiicnlt to accustom to take a
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