T H E SYDNEY WAXBILL.
^^gintha temporalis. LATH.
p N H A B I T S Australia from Queensland to Wide Bay District and New South
" Wales. The general colouring of the upper surface is olive-green; the flight
feathers ^vitli bro^ish gre}' inner webs: upper tail-coverts crimson; central tail
feathers black, tlie remainder brown ; c row of head and nape slate-grey; a broad
carmine streak from the base of tlie beak, partly enclosing the eye and extending
to above the ear-coverts; eyelid crimson above, grey below; sides of face aud
throat ash-grey, chin whiter; breast and abdomen smoky pearl-grey at the sides,
pale brownish-buff in the centre; under wing-coverts white, tinted with bromi;
flight and tail-feathers below smoky grey, browner at the edges. Length inches.
Beak carmine; the ridge black, so that when viewed from above the upper mandible
appears to be black with carmine borders, the under surface of the lower
mandible more intensely black excepting at the tip; legs pale yellowish horncolour
; iris crimson.
I wintered this hardy little Waxbill in a cold aviary, where, on several
occasions, the thermometer registered twelve degrees of frost, and apparently it
was none the worse for the exposure; it however died towards autumn of the
succeeding year; so that it is possible that it may have contracted a pulmonary
disease. Nevertheless I should fully expect that examples, if reared in this country,
would prove to be full3' capable of withstanding severe winters as easily as the
little Australian Zebra-finch.
Gould observes that:—"This species of Finch is very generally spread over
the gardens and all such open pasture lands of New South Wales and South
Australia as abound in grasses and small plants, upon the seeds of which it chiefly
subsists. It is particularly abundant in the neighbourhood of Sydney; even in
the Botanic Gardens numbers may always be seen flitting from border to border.
It is easily domesticated, and is of a lively disposition in captivity, even old birds
becoming perfectly reconciled after a few days. In autumn it is gregarious, and
The Sydney Waxbill, 151
Mr. Caley states it often assembles in large flocks ; in the spring they are mostly
seen in pairs, and then build their large and conspicuous nest, which is formed
of dead grass, lined with thistle down, in any low bush adapted for a site; but
in none more frecpiently than in the beautiful Leplospermum squarrostim."
Mr. North writes This bird is one of the commonest of the Ploceida in
New South Wales and Victoria; it constructs a flask-shaped nest of dried grass,
etc., placed in a bush or low tree ; a favourite breeding locality of this species is
in the Melalaua scrubs that fringe the edges of rivers and creeks. At Heidelberg
in Victoria, I have seen upwards of fifty nests of this species, wliile out collecting,
in a single day. Eggs five in number for a sitting, pure white.
" It was from a nest of this species, built in an Acacia opposite the entrance gates
to the old Government House at Toovak, Victoria, that I first took the egg of
CJialcites plagosus (Bronze Cuckoo), and although I have taken it on many occasions
since, it has been very rarely that I have found it in the nest of this bird. Eggs
of Ai. temporalis may be taken in September and all through the season to the
latter end of February."
Dr. Rttss says that this is one of the birds which rarely reaches us, therefore
only finds a few admirers, although it is beautiful and amiable and exhibits other
prerogatives of the Ornamental Finches.
" T h i s Ornamental Finch also I first reared in my Bird-room, and later also
Mr. Linden of Radolfozell. As soon as the pair began to breed, I noticed that in
one of the two hitherto similarly coloured birds the faint dirty ash-grey became,
as it were, suffused with bluish-white.
" Several pairs lived peaceabl)^ in the Bird-room and one began to nest. Nest
in the basket of a Hartz cage, of bark-fibres, thin grass stalks, horsehair and
Agave or Aloe-fibres; formed sphericallj', carefully smoothed inside, and with an
entrance hole at the side. Laying five to six eggs, white, flesh-tinted from transparency;
Duration of inenbation thirteen days, both taking turns. Nestling down
bluish-grey. Yoimg plumage dull earthy-grey, feebly tinted with olive-green; underbody
dirty yellowish-grey, with grey-black tail above and below; only recognizable
by the alreadjr existing soft red of the superciliary stripe and croup. The change
of colour I do not know, as the young always died before it.
"More delicate than most other Australians, especially sensitive to wet cold.
The young ones in my Bird-room died one cold early summer night and the hen
also came to grief through catching cold. Not so lively as other Astrilds, the
Thonr Astrild is quiet, silent yet agreeable and peaceful. Love-sport:—The male
hops around the hen with its tail held obliquely sideways, in comical jumps. Callli:
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