Australian Birds in the Collection of the Linnean Society. 259 
Fringilla temporalis. Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp. xlviii. no. 4. 
Temporal Finch. Id. Gen. Hist. vi p. 115. no. 91. Lewin, 
Birds of New Holl. pl. 12. 
‘This bird,” says Mr. Caley, ** which the settlers call Red-bill, 
is gregarious, and appears at times in very large flocks. I have 
killed above forty at a shot. They frequently visited my garden 
in the winter to feed on a species of grass-seed." 
Fam. STURNIDÆ. 
We have introduced the mention of this family for the pur- 
pose of stating the great deficiency, if not total want of the 
birds belonging to it, which prevails in New Holland. In the 
continents of the Old and New World the Sturnide congre- 
gate in large flocks, and follow the herds of the larger herbivo- 
rous Mammalia, from whom they obtain a great portion of their 
nourishment, collecting the insects with which they abound, 
and the remains of the herbaceous food which are found in 
their neighbourhood. The general want of these herbivorous 
Quadrupeds in Australia, accounts for a corresponding deficiency 
in those birds which look to them for a chief portion of their 
support. A similar deficiency in the Coprophagous insects has 
been equally observed* in the same country, and a similar 
cause assigned for it. A species however of the family is now 
before us, which has been for some time included in our New 
Holland collection. It bears no note of whence it came, nor 
any donor's name; and we have some doubts whether it might 
not have crept into the collection by mistake. As we have 
been particularly guarded against introducing any species which 
has not come to the Society from an authentic source, we 
refrain from giving it as a New Holland bird, but shall merely 
* See “ Hore Entomologice,” part i. p. 59. 
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