In the female the colours are rather lighter on the back and belly: the young are not only paler, but also irregularly spotted with dark brown on the cheeks and lower part of the belly.
OBSERVATIONS.--There are few vessels coming from Java and the Cape of Good Hope that do not bring numbers of these birds, which have as bad a character in those countries, and particularly in China, their native place, as the sparrows have amongst us, on account of the ravages they make in the rice fields. They have nothing attractive but their beauty, for their song is short and monotonous. They cost four or five pounds sterling a pair in Germany.
Loxia Astrild, LINNÆUS; Le Sénégali rayé, BUFFON; Der Gemeine Senegalist, BECHSTEIN.
This bird is hardly larger than a golden-crested wren, its length being four inches and a half, of which the tail measures two inches; the beak is rather rough at the base, and of a dark red; the band which crosses the eyes, the centre of the breast and belly, are red; the upper part of the body is brown, and the lower reddish grey, the whole streaked with transverse blackish lines, which become finer as they approach the head; the quill-feathers are brown, as well as the tail, which is wedge-shaped, and streaked with darker transverse lines; the feet are brown. These birds change colour like the amandava finch; thus some are found with the tail entirely brown, others which have the rump crimson, and the rest of the body brown above and white below, and some have the belly yellow, and the back spotted with white; there are some, indeed, which have the neck and throat bluish, the under part of the body white, mixed with iron colour, and the upper part blue.
OBSERVATIONS.--They inhabit the Canary Islands, Senegal, Angola, the Cape of Good Hope, and may even be found as far as India, whence they are brought to Europe. Their beautiful shape, their amiable disposition, and the affection which they show to every one indiscriminately, render them such favourites, that a dozen may be often seen in one cage. Their song is scarcely any thing. They are fed on millet, which also forms their food in their native country, to the damage of the fields which are sown with it. They approach villages like our sparrows; they are caught in traps made of the shell of a gourd, and cut like a bowl, on which some millet is scattered.