297 



POEPHILA. GOULDI^. 

 Adult male (Black-headed var ) ; — Siniilar to the jin-fedinf/, Imt n-itlimi.t niii/ sntrlrl mi the 

 head, the lores, cheeks, ear-coverts, foffheoil dtid sincijiut briny eutirr/y hhich like the throat. 



POEPHILA ARMITIANA. 



Adult male (" Yellow "-headed var.) : — Similar to the " red" -headed variety, Ijat havimj those 

 parts of the head ochreous-yelJoiv instead of scarlet. 



Adult femalk — Tijpicalhj the adult females 1.1 f the red-headed and black-lteaded birds are only 

 to be distimjnished from the adult males by their duller jjlumac/e, es])ecially of the lilac fore neck and 

 chest, and the blue on the occiput ; there appears, however, to be a preponderance of black headed 

 females, and occasionally very old females of both forms are as brilliant in colour as the adult males. 



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

 (Queensland. 



^S pointed out by me at a meeting of the Linnean 

 Society of New South Wales, in March, 

 iSSg, all the above described forms may be referred 

 to a single species, Poephila mirabilis. Dr. E. Hartert 

 has, however, more recently shown in "Novitates 

 Zoologicas " '■'■ that Des Murs name must give way 

 to Gould's older name of Poephila gouldia:, published 

 in 1844, the preceding year. Its range extends 

 right across the northern portion of the Australian 

 Continent, from the neighbourhood of Charters 

 Towers, in Queensland, to Derby in North-western 

 Australia, grassy plains in the vicinity of water 

 being its favourite haunts. Where they occur in 

 any number every collector has observed black- 

 headed and red-headed birds together. 1\I. Octave 

 Le Bon informs me that at Croydon, in Queensland, 

 and near Wyndham in North-western Australia, 

 he has never made a pull of the trap without securing 

 both forms. They are easily caught, over one 

 Unlike many other species of Australian F'inches, 

 they do not sulk, young birds even starting to feed before they are taken out of the nets. 



Probably more has been written about the breeding of this species in confinement than any 

 other member of the Australian Ploccdia, on account of the varying phases of its plumage, and 

 more especially the assumption of the scarlet feathers on the head of the form known as Poephila 

 miraUlis. In a large series of skins now before me, there is a specimen with a few bright scarlet 

 feathers among the dusky-grey feathers on the head, first assumed in youth ; in others the scarlet 

 feathers are seen among the dull black feathers of the head of a later stage of plumage; while 

 another shows traces of dull scarlet feathers among the rich velvety black plumage of the head 

 of what otherwise might be regarded as a very old female of Poephila gouldiee. When the young 

 first leave the nest, the plumage of both forms is alike. Of three young ones bred in Dr. E. P. 

 Ramsay's aviary, at the Museum, in May 1888, from a black-headed pair of birds, all first 

 assumed the dull black head of the young stage, but later on one developed the scarlet head of 

 the form known as Poephila mirabilis. That one may expect to get the same coloured young as 

 the parents from either a red-headed pair or a black-headed pair of birds, is only reasonable, but 

 there appears to be no certainty about it, as in a state of nature both forms are caught together. 



GOULDIAN GBASS FINCH. 



hundred birds being obtained at one time. 



Nov. Zool., Vol. XII., p. 238 (1905). 



