208 NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



western Australia, my attention was arrested by numerous 

 examples of Long-tailed Grass Finches. The greater number, 

 captured at Derby, were of the well known type of Poephila 

 acuticauda with pale wax-yellow bills, while those caught at 

 Wyndham were almost similar in colour, but Avere distinguished 

 by having their bills orange-scarlet, forming a marked contrast, 

 especiall}^ when seen together in the same cage. This distinction 

 was also pointed out to me some time ago by Mr. G. A. Keartland, 

 of Melbourne, who had both the pale yellow and orange-billed 

 birds in confinement; and again more recently by sending me a 

 skin of one of the latter that had died the previous daj'- in his 

 aviary. Mr. Keartland, who had many opportunities of observing 

 Poephila acuticauda while at Derb}^, informs me that the bills of 

 all the specimens he collected, and of sixteen birds he brought 

 back with him alive, were all pale wax-yellow. Since his return 

 others that were caught at Wyndham and Port Darwin, and 

 which he had in confinement, were all distinguished by their 

 orange-scarlet bills. Except that the birds from these localities 

 are a slightly darker shade of plumage than those obtained at 

 Derb}", there is nothing except the colour of the bill to separate 

 them. Age or sex has nothing to do with this distinction, for I 

 have seen many hundreds of Poephila acuticauda^ and have had 

 them under observation from the nestling to the adult, while 

 breeding in confinement. The type of this species was obtained 

 b}^ Mr. Bynoe on the north-Avest coast of Australia; and the bill 

 was described by the late Mr. Gould as yellow. The e3'es and feet 

 of all I have examined are coral-red. If the colour of the bills of 

 the Wyndham and Port Darwin birds is not a specific character 

 it certainly constitutes a very distinct variety of P. acuticauda^ 

 which I propose to distinguish under the name of Poephila 

 aurantiirostrns. Vernacularly it ma}^ be known as the Orange- 

 billed Grass Finch. 



