MUX I A. 28"> 



on the margins of swamps. Several of these Finches were received by Sydney bird dealers, by 

 way of Port Darwin, in 1903, Mr. H. E. Peir presenting a specimen to the Trustees of the 

 Australian Museum that had died in captivity in September of that year. Early in March, 1904, 

 another of these Finches in Mr. Peir's possession died, and was presented to this collection. 

 About the same time a living example was purchased by the Trustees from M. Le Bon, to 

 which I drew attention when exhibiting a skin of this species at a meeting of the Linnean Society 

 of New South Wales, on the 27th April, 1904." This bird was received among a number of 

 other species, consisting chiefly of Munia castancithorax, from Port Darwin, in December 1903. 

 It lived until the 6th June, 1904, and is now a specimen in the Australian Museum collection. 

 Since that time living examples of these Finches have become more common, many being sent to 

 London in 1904, and again in larger numbers in 1905. Dr. Ernst Hartert also recorded two 

 specimens from the Victoria River in 1905.! In February, igoy, I saw about twelve living 

 birds in the possession of Mr. Fritz Kruger in Sydney, brought with a number of other species 

 procured from Port Darwin, in the Xortiiern Territory of South Australia. 



Of its mode of nidification in a state of nature I know nothing beyond that recorded, in a 

 general way, by the late Mr. M. Elsey when writing to Gould from the Victoria River Depot J in 

 June, 1856: — " There are two D();;(;r<)/(7 fZ).^7?rtz;;/!>;'jw;w, and a crimson and brown one. . . . The 

 Donacola build in some parts in low tea-trees overhanging water, making a large spouted nest, 

 with a small cavity, of dry bark of tea-trees, and Pandanus. . . . They all lay six white eggs." 



This species has bred in confinement in England, an interesting account of which is given 

 by Mr. W. E. Teschemaker in the pages of the " Avicultural Magazine." The egg of this species 

 is oval in form, pure white and slightly lustrous, and measures : — Length 0-67 x 0-48 inches. 



Several of these Finches have acquired abnormal plumage in confinement, Mr. D. Seth 

 Smith exhibiting one of these specimens at a 'meeting of the British Ornithologists' Club on the 

 i6th January, 1907, ; which showed distinct traces of the dark throat and pectoral band 

 characteristic of Munia castuiifithoi'ax. 



All of the specimens in the Australian Museum collection have the throat and the remainder 

 of the under surface uniform creamy-buff, washed with fawn colour, being whitish on the 

 centre of the abdomen. From Gould's figure, in his folio edition of the " Birds of Australia," 

 they differ principally in having the head greyer, paler on the sides, and the rump and upper 

 tail-coverts more of a reddish-ochre hue, especially the upper part of the rump. 



Munia pectoralis. 



WHITE-BEEASTED FINCH. 

 I)o7iacola pectoralis, GouW, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. TIL, pi. 9.5(1848); id., Handhk. Bds. Austr., 



Vol. L, p. 427 (186.5). 

 Mwiia pectoralis, Sha.rpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XIII. , p. 354(1890); North, Vict. Nat, 



Vol. XVI., p. 12 (1899). 



Adult male — General colour above, including the forehead and crown of the head, greyish- 



hrown; quills broivn, paler on tlieir outer webs, tvhity-brotvn around their tips ; upper wing-coverts 



browner, with a minute ivhite dot at the tip ; tail feathers dusky -brown; lores black ; sides of face, 



ear-coverts and throat 'jlossy purplish-black; a fawn line extends from the sides of the forehead over 



the eye on to the sides of the neck, where it is much broader, and slightly richer in colour; band on 



the fore neck tvhite, the feathers having a subterminal black bar, which is concealed except at the sides: 



remainder of the under surface light viuaceous-brown, some of the feathers on the sides of the body 



* Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, Vol. XXIX., p. 58 (1904). j Proc. Zool. See, 1857, p. 26. 



t Nov. Zool , Vol. XII., p. 239 (1905). § Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, Vol. XIX., p 38 (1907). 



