Tentatively identified as firefinches, this pair of birds has proven difficult to identify conclusively. There are about eleven species of firefinches, all with a habitat native to Africa and some parts of Australia. The male birds tend to exhibit red plumage while the females are usually brown in coloration. However, none of the eleven species are described as exhibiting white-spotted plumage like that found on the illustrated birds under discussion. If these are in fact firefinches, this inconsistency could be explained by the fact that Edwards often worked from nonliving specimens and his drawings occasionally reflect this fact as drying the carcasses or preserving them in alcohol sometimes altered the colors of life.
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