298 PLOCEID.E. 



and are frequently kept together until they come into the breeder's possession. Absolute proof 

 of the uncertainty of what the adult stage of one of these Finches may be, is afforded by a 

 specimen in the Australian Museum collection, presented by Mr. Percy Pier. It was purchased 

 by him with some others, caught near Port Darwin, in the modest garb of the usual livery of 

 the first plumage of both forms of this species, but instead of assuming in its adult stage either 

 a scarlet or a black head, it has the ochreous-yellow lores, sides of face, forehead and sinciput of 

 the rare form described by Dr. Ramsay under the name of Foephila armitiana. It is a fine old 

 male, is in perfect plumage, and lived eighteen months in captivity. This subject, so full of 

 interest to aviculturists, has been dealt with in the pages of the " Avicultural Magazine," and 

 more especially in an interesting article by Dr. A. G. Butler on the " Mutation of the Gouldian 

 Finch." ' 



The nest is a dome-shaped structure composed entirely of dried grasses, and is usually 

 placed in a low bush or tree not far from the ground. 



The eggs are usually five in number for a sitting, pure white, and vary from oval to nearly 

 pyriform in shape, the shell being close-grained, smooth and lustreless. A set of five measures 

 as follows : — Length (A) o-66 x 0-5 inches; (B) o-68 x 0-49 inches; (0)0-69 x 0-48 inches; 

 (D) 0-68 X 0-47 inches ; (E) 0-67 x 0-5 inches. 



In North-western Australia it usually breeds during November and December, and in the 

 Northern Territory of South Australia and North Queensland, after the first rain, usually at the 

 end of January or early in February and March. In confinement they breed at any time, and 

 frequently in the coldest months of the year. 



Poephila personata. 



SIASKED GEASS FINCH. 

 Poephila personata, Go\x\d,'PTOc. Zool. Soc, 1842, p. 18; id., Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. III., pi. 91 

 (1848); id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 423 (1865); Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., 

 Vol. XIII., p. 377 (1890). 

 Adult male — General colour above liyht cinnamon-brown, upper icing-coverts like the back, the 

 lower back and apical half of the quills of a darker and pronounced greyish shade; rump and 

 upper tail-coverts ivhite ; tail feathers black ; forehead, lores, anterior portion of cheeks and a large 

 triangular-shaped spot on the chin and upper throat, black; sides of head and under surface of the 

 body, pinkish-brown; on the lou-er _flanks a large black patch; centre of loiver abdomen, thighs and 

 under tail-coverts white; bill deep yellow; legs and feet coral-red; iris black. Total length in the 

 Jlesh 5-2 inches, niing .!■]/, central tail feathers 2-4, bill 0-J,2, tarsus Ooo. 

 Adult female — Similar in plumage to the male, but slightly smaller. 

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

 /T^HE Masked Grass Finch is an inhabitant of the Northern Territory of South Australia 

 I and North-western Australia. All the specimens in the Australian Museum collection 



were procured in the Northern Territory of South Australia. The late Mr. Alexander Morton 

 obtained this species at Yam Creek, and Dr. Henry Sinclair, M. Octave Le Bon, Mr. W. J. 

 Banks and Mr. Robert Grant presented specimens that had all been obtained in the neighbourhood 

 of Port Darwin. .\ specimen was also received from the late Mr. J. D. Young, who netted it 

 among a number of others, in the same district. It is a common species in the Sydney bird- 

 dealers' shops, and from inquiries made, nearly all were procured either inland or near Port 

 Darwin. Dr. R. B. Sharpe, in the " Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum," t enumerates 

 specimens from the Northern Territory of South Australia and North-western Australia, and so 

 also does Dr. Ernst Hartert in " Novitates Zoologies." :; 



• Vol. IV, p. 326 (1906.) t Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XIII., p. 377 fiSgo). ; Nov. Zool., Vol. XII., p. 238 (1905). 



