291 



Bathilda ruficauda. 



RED-TAILED FINCH. 



Amadina ruficauda, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1836, p. 106. 



Estrelda ruficauda, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. III., pi. 84 (1848). 



Bathilda ruficauda, Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 412 (ISC'!); Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. 

 Mus., Vol. XIII., p. 374 (1890). 



Adult male — General colour above olii'e-broivn, slv/hliy broiuner on the icings: the upper tail- 

 coverts with a heart-shaped white spot near tlie tip, and washed with rosy-critnson; central pair of 

 tail feathers dull crimson, the remainder dusky-broivn, indistinctly washed with dull crimson on their 

 outer webs ; entire Jore half of head, ear-coverts, chin and upper throat crimson, the ear-coverts with 

 tiny rounded white spots; loiver throat, fore neck, and sides of the body light olive-yrey, each feather 

 having a spot of white near the tip, ivhich are larger on tlie lower sides of the body ; centre of the 

 breast and the abdomen yellotvish-white, being paler on the under tail-coverts; bill scarlet; legs and 

 feet yellow; iris orange-red. Total length in the flesh 4-'3 inches, wing 2'1, tail 1-8, bill O'^, 

 tarsus 0''i5. 



Adult fem.\le — Like the adult male, but didler in plumage, and haviiig only the forehead, lores, 

 feathers above and belou- the eye and chin dull crimson. 



Distribution — North-western Australia, Northern Territory of South Australia, Queensland. 



/T^HE present species, known to bird dealers as the " Star Finch," is freely distributed 

 -L throughout the coastal and neighbouring districts of North-western Australia, the 

 Northern Territory of South Australia and Queensland. Numerous specimens were procured 

 by the late Mr. T. H. Bowyer-Bower and Air. E. J. Cairn, in the vicinity of Derby, and near 

 the junction of the Fitzroy and Margaret Rivers, in the early part of 1897, by Mr. G. A. Keartland. 

 M. Octave Le Bon informs me that he trapped numbers of these birds near Wyndham, North- 

 western Australia ; also between Cloncurry and Normanton, in the Burke District, Northern 

 Queensland. From the latter State there are specimens in the Australian Museum collection 

 from Dunrobin, Rockhampton and Port Denison, the farthest south I have known this species 

 to occur. Although it appears in Dr. E. P. Ramsay's "Tabular List of Australian Birds" '■ as 

 occurring in New South Wales and the interior. Dr. Ramsay informs me that he has never seen 

 a specimen from either of these parts of the Australian Continent, and as previously remarked 

 by him, "does not e.xtend further south than Central Queensland." t The small flock of these 

 Finches recorded by me, \ seen near Lithgow, on the Blue Mountains, Mr. R. Grant informs 

 me was a case of mistaken identity, they were red-tailed, or rather red-rumped Finches ; 

 but it was Zonaginthus bcllits, not Bathilda ruficauda. Gould records that he " observed this 

 beautiful finch rather thinly disposed on the sides of the river Namoi," New South Wales, and 

 of another species, Pocphila cincta, he remarks, " this species is tolerably abundant on the 

 Liverpool Plains." During my visits to these parts I have never observed one species or the 

 other, nor have I seen a specimen of either from the northern or any part of New South Wales, 

 or even the adjoining portions of Southern Queensland. In addition to examining many collections 

 in Northern New South Wales, I have questioned bird-trappers and dealers with a similar 



• Tab. List. Austr. Bds., p. 10 (1888,) 



+ Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, Vol. I., 2nd ser., p. 1090 (1886.) 



; Rec. Austr. Mus., Vol. II., p. 14 (1892.). 



