300 



Poephila nigrotecta. 



BLACK-RUMPED GRASS FINCH. 

 Poephila nigrotecta, Hartert, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club (Ibis, 1899, p. 647). 



Poephila alropygialis (vox hyhrida, Diggles), Oastl. and Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soo. N. S. Wales, 

 Vol. I., p. 382 (1877) ; North, Rec. Austr. Mus., Vol. V , p. 263 (1904). 



Adult male — Resembles the adult male of Poephila cincta, Goidd, but is lighter in colour, 

 and has the upper tail-coverts black. Total lengt/i (of skin), 4' J inches, wing 2'35, tail 1'6, bill O'lf, 

 tarsus 0-6. 



Adult female — Similar in plumage to the male. 



Distribution — Northern Queensland. 

 /T^HE Black-rumped Grass Finch was described as a new species by the late Comte de 

 -L Castlenau and Dr. E. P. Ramsay, in the " Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New 

 South Wales" in 1877, and in a footnote to their description of Poephila atropygialis, made the 

 following remarks: — "Diggles, Queenslander newspaper, 1876. We have adopted the name 

 proposed by Mr. Diggles, of Queensland, for this new species, but more out of compliment to 

 that gentleman than in accordance with the strict rules of nomenclature, as it will be evident to 

 all ornithologists that the merely proposing a name and pointing out a difference in a newspaper 

 can scarcely be looked upon as describing the species. We trust our friend will take this hint 

 in the kindly spirit it is meant, and when he again favours us with the announcement of any 

 species, we hope they will be fully described." There are three specimens in the Reference 

 Collection, and they were obtained at the mouth of the Norman River, Gulf of Carpentaria. 

 Dr. E. Hartert has also described specimens from Cape York, under the name of Poephila 

 nigrotecta. 



Of its nidification Dr. Ramsay remarks : — ''This fine species is distributed over the country 

 between the Gulf of Carpentaria and Georgetown and its neighbourhood, where it is said to be 

 common along with Donacicola pectoralis, Poephila leucotis and Poephila personata. Its nest is an 

 oval structure of interwoven grasses, having an opening at one end partly concealed by long 

 grasses drawn over the entrance. It is placed among the stronger grasses, or small bushes 

 which grow here and there on the grass flats, or among the leaves of the Pandanus aquaticus." 



The eggs are five or six in number for a sitting, pure white, oval in form, the shell being 

 close-grained, smooth and lustreless. A set of five taken at Normanton measures: — Length (A) 

 0-63 X 0-45 inches; (B) 0-65 x o'46 inches ; (C) 0-65 x 0-47 inches; (D) 0-62 x 0-45 inches ; 

 (E) o'65 X o'45 inches. 



OemaS ZSTEOOSLliv^I.^^, Bonaparte. 



Neochmia phaeton. 



CRIMSON FINCH. 

 Fringilla phaeton, Hombr. et Jacq., Ann. Sol. Nat., Tom. XVI., p. 314 (1841). 

 Estrelda j}haeton, iiowU, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. HI., pi. 83(1848). 



Neochmia phaeton, ijiOMiXd, Handh. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 41.5(186.?); Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit 

 Mus., Vol. XIII., p. 389 (1890). 

 Adult male — General colour above brown, the exposed portion of the feathers on the back dull 

 crimson; upper tail-coverts bright crimson; upper wing-coverts and innermost secondaries like the back, 

 the outer secondaries brown, margined externally ivith dull crimson; primaries broivn, their outer edges 

 yelloivish-broivn ; central pair of tail feathers dull crimson, the remainder having the outer tvebs dtdl 



