268 ploceida;. 



Young birds resemble the adults on the upper parts, but are much duller in colour, the 

 wings dull black without any oil-green gloss, except on the inner secondaries and inner wing- 

 coverts ; all the under surface white streaked with black, except on the centre of the abdomen. 

 Wing 4 inches. A further progress towards maturity is exhibited by some feathers on the under 

 parts being glossy -green instead of black. 



September and the three following months constitute the usual breeding season in North- 

 eastern Queensland. 



Family PLOCEID^. 



Sub-family VIDUIN^. 

 O-eniaS ST.A.a-^^i<rO:E=XjElUiS.A., ReickenbacL 



Staganopleura guttata. 



8P0TTED-SIDED FINCH. 

 Loxia guttata, Shaw, Mus. Lever., p. 47, fig. 2 of Plate (1792). 

 Amadina lathami, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. III., pi. 80 (1848). 

 Stagonopleura guttata, Gould, Haadbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. 1., p. 417 (186.5). 

 Staganopleura guttata, Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XIII., p. 292 (1890). 



Adult male — General colour above including the ivings brown; rump and upper tail-coverts 

 bright crimson; tail black: forehead, crown of the head and hindneck ashy -grey ; lores black: throat 

 white; a broad hand on the foreneck black; sides offoreneck and flanks black, each feather having a 

 subterniinal white spot; breast, abdomen and under tail-coverts pure white; bill vinous-red shaded with 

 lilac at the base; legs and feet dark grey; iris red. Total length in the Jlesh Jf-6 inches, icing £■?, 

 tail 1-7, bill O-J^o, tarsus 0-7. 



Adult fem.^le — Similar in plumage to the male, but the black hand on the foreneck is narrotver. 



Distribution — Southern Queensland, New South Wales, \'ictoria. South Australia. 

 /~|^HE Australian members of the Family Ploceida; are of more than ordinary interest, for 

 -L in addition to their usual attractive plumage, as a rule they live well and breed freely 

 in confinement. Taniopygia castanotis, Munia pedoraUs, Pcephila cinda, and P. ncuticaiida, were all 

 breeding contentedly together at the same time in an aviary Dr. E. P. Ramsay formerly had at the 

 Australian Museum. A large export trade in Finches is done every year with the Continent 

 and England ; in one shipment I saw, in April 19P2, over five thousand Finches that left Sydney 

 for .'\ntwerp. Much has been done to popularise the study of the habits of Finches in confinement, 

 by the labours of Dr. .\rthur G. Butler, in his excellent work on " Foreign Finches in Captivity." 

 Special attention too, is being paid to the subject by the members of the ".\vicultural Society," 

 and more particularly to the breeding habits, not only of Finches, but of all species of birds 

 living in confinement, the observations of many of its members being duly recorded in the 

 "Avicultural Magazine," London, the Journal of the Society. 



In a wild state an interest also attaches to many species of Finches for their sociable habits, 

 breeding freely about houses and gardens, and often selecting most unusual sites as nesting places. 

 It must not be forgotten that to a large extent, particularly during the late autum and winter 

 months their food, consists of insects, although in confinement the greater number of .Australian 

 species thrive well wholly on a granivorous diet. 



The Spotted-sided Finch or "Diamond Sparrow" as it is more frequently called, is distributed 

 throughout the southern portions of Queensland, New South Wales, \'ictoria, and the eastern 

 parts of South Australia. In the neighbourhood of Sydney it is more plentiful in the western 



