STICTOPTERA. 279 



which is more pronounced on tlie lower sides of the body and the under tail-coverts. Wing 

 i"95 inches. 



.\s has already been pointed out, the Chestnut-eared Finch breeds in Western New South 

 Wales in Spring and again in Autumn, and in some places all the year round. Numbers of these 

 birds are trapped annually, and being a hardy species they thrive well and breed freely in 

 confinement, and rear their young without requiring any special attention beyond keeping 

 them well supplied with seed, water, a few bushy branches, and plenty of thin dried plant stems 

 and grasses to form their nests. In confinement their nests are not, as a rule, so well built as when 

 in a wild state. Several broods are reared in the same nest, the old birds frequently starting to 

 re-line the nest before the young ones who have just left it are barely able to fly. They breed at 

 all times of the year. In an aviary Dr. E. P. Ramsay had at the Australian Museum, a brood 

 of young left the nest on the 3rd June, 1887 ; it was the third brood of the same pair of birds 

 since January. 



O-en-as STIOTOI=TEIS-<^, Rekhenbach. 



Stictoptera bichenovii. 



BICHENO'S FINCH. 

 Fringilla bichenorii, Vig. and Horsf., Trans. Linn. Soc, Vol. XV., p. 2.58 (1827). 

 Esirelda bichenovii, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. III., pi. 80 (1848). 



Stictoptera bichenovii, Gould, Handb. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 409 0865) ; Hharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. 

 Mus., Vol. XIII., p. 313 (1890). 



Adult male — General colour above, inclnding the croimi of the head, "pale brown, with numerous 

 indistinct darker brown cross-lines ; bar across the rnnip black ; tipper tail-coverts pure white, some 

 of the lo'rer and partially concealed ones, black; lesser and medium, upper wing-coverts like the 

 back: greater coverts and quills broivnish-black spotted with tvhite : tail black; lores, feathers above 

 the eye, cheeks, ear-coverts, chin and throat pure white, bordered around with a narrow black line, 

 ivhich widens out on the forehead into a wide black band; foreneck and chest white, slightly tinged in 

 the centre, and washed with brown on the sides of the chest, followed by a second and broader black 

 cross-band ; remainder of the under surface white ivith a faint creamy buff wash; under tail-coverts 

 black; bill light slate colour; legs and feel grey : iris black. Total length in the flesh Jf'^o inches, 

 wing 2'15, tail 1-6, bill 0'S8, tarsus 0'57. 



Adult veuki^v, — Similar in plumage to the male. 



Distribution — Queensland, New South Wales. 



^HE present species was described by \'igors and 



Horsfield in the Transactions of the Linnean 



Society of London, ' from specimens collected by Mr. Brown 



at Shoalwater Bay and Broad Sound, Queensland, in 



September 1802. Its range extends over the greater part 



of Queensland and the inland portions of the northern half 



of New South Wales. This Finch, the " Double-bar " of 



Sydney bird dealers, is another instance of a species being 



found in the coastal as well as the inland districts of 



Queensland, while in New South Wales, where it is far 



less common, it is strictly confined to the inland portions 



of the State. Among a number of specimens in the Aus- 



BicHENo's FINCH. traliau Museum collection, there are examples obtained in 



* Trans. Linn. Soc, Vol. XV., p. 25S (1827.) 



/T^i 



