Fringilla amandava, LINNÆUS; Le Bengali Piqueté, BUFFON; Der
Getiegerte Bengalist, BECHSTEIN.
This beautiful little bird, which is brought to Europe in great numbers
from Bengal, Java, Malacca, and other tropical countries of Asia, is
only four inches long, of which the tail measures one and a third. Most
ornithologists class it with the sparrows, but it seems to me that it
belongs rather to the grosbeaks. Its beak is short and thick, being only
four lines in length, and the diameter at the base measuring three. Its
colour is deep bright red; the iris is also red; the feet are six lines
in height, and of a pale flesh-colour; in the male the head and under
part of the body are of a fiery red, the upper part of a dark grey, but
the feathers have a broad red edge, so that this colour seems to
prevail; thus the edge of the feathers on the rump make it appear of a
brilliant orange, though, like the belly, it is properly black; the
feathers of the back, tail, sides of the breast and belly, the
wing-coverts, hinder quill-feathers, and both tail-coverts, are
terminated at the tip with shining white spots, which are largest on the
hinder quill-feathers, and larger wing-coverts, the colour of which is
otherwise black.
The female is one third smaller than the male; part of the upper
mandible is black; the head and upper part of the body, including the
wing-coverts, are of a dark ash-colour; the feathers on the rump have
only an orange edge, with a light tip; the cheeks are of a light grey;
the under part of the body is pale sulphur, the pen-feathers blackish;
the greater and lesser wing-coverts are finely speckled with white; the
tips of the tail-feathers are greyish white.
The male varies in its colours for several years before it permanently
acquires those above described: it may be seen with the back grey,
slightly tinted with red, the belly black, speckled with yellow; others
with the back reddish grey, spotted with bright red, and the belly of a
sulphur yellow, with black rings, and more or less speckled, &c.
OBSERVATIONS.--These birds are as sociable as the waxbills; if there
should be twenty or thirty in the same cage, they perch close against
one another on the same perch; and, what is more singular, they never
sing together, but one after another, the rest keeping quite silent
to listen to the songster. Their song resembles that of the hay bird,
and continues through the winter. The females do not sing; those are
wrong who think the contrary. They are very active, often bowing and
spreading their tail like a fan. In their native country their food
consists of different seeds, particularly millet; this is also given
it in the cage, as well as canary seed. They eat and drink a great
deal. They will live from six to ten years.