Varieties.—1. A black spot on the chin; thighs red.
2. Tail dark brown, with a greyish white border.
In the female the beak is raven black, the upper part of the body dark brown, with light grey edges to the feathers; the head dark grey, with a whitish streak which passes above the eyes; the under part of the body light grey. From this it seems to be very like the house sparrow; its plumage is, however, altogether lighter.
The male takes these colours, in the house, at the second moulting, but the streaks are darker, the feathers of the upper part of the body being blackish, with broad borders of reddish grey; the streak above the eyes is of a pale sulphur. When wild, the males, immediately after pairing, which is in January, lose their red feathers, and become like the females, but have them again in July, about the time of the second breeding season. They are pretty whilst moulting, when the head and body are speckled, the tail and neck still remaining red.
Observations.—These birds, which are very numerous in all the colonies at the Cape of Good Hope, do as much mischief there to the flowers and ears of corn, as the sparrows do in Europe. When retiring by thousands in the evening, from the fields to the reeds, they make such a noise with their chirping as may be heard to a great distance. Their call is like the sparrows’ “dib, dib,” and their song as weak as that of the siskin; the nest is skilfully constructed with small twigs interwoven with cotton, and has but one opening, with two compartments, one above the other, the upper for the male and the lower for the female; the eggs are green.
These birds, when kept in a cage, are fed on canary seed. The male and female never like to be separated; there is no instance, however, of their breeding in these climates.
THE CAPE FINCH.
Loxia Capensis, Linnæus; Le Pinson noir et jaune, Buffon; Der Capsche Kernbeisser, Bechstein.
I have one of these birds, which is about the size of a bullfinch: its length is six inches and a quarter, of which the tail, which is rather wedge-shaped, measures two and a half. The beak is whitish above, very much compressed on the sides, and very pointed; the iris dark brown; feet dark flesh-colour. The head, neck, top of the back, all the under part of the body, and the tail are of a fine velvet black.