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. THE AMANDAVA. 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.