SOUTH AND CENTRAL AUSTRALIA 187 



CHAIN DISTRIBUTION 



Mt. Lofty is one terminal, of distribution of the 

 Red-browed Finch, map 80. The bird, having a 

 browner head than the Bassian one (Vic. — 

 N.S.W.), becomes a race of it. The Cape York bird, 

 6, is the smallest of all the species and becomes the 

 Least Red-browed Finch. 



The largest is found at 4, where birds usually are 

 larger. It is the most numerous of all the finches 

 and makes the largest nest, which is bottle shaped. 

 This small bird lays six pure white eggs. The 

 young has a black bill and dark eye brow during 

 the first few months, after which it becomes the 

 "wax bill" with blood red on the rump and eye- 

 brow. 



It is occasionally the foster parent of insect- 

 eating cuckoos and helps to prove to us that seed- 

 eating birds feed their own young on insects. 



ZEBRA FINCH AND ITS RACES 



Finches of the several species live in very differ- 

 ent kinds of places and in many ways. In Europe 

 the true finches prefer the timber, the buntings the 

 open, the snow-finch the coldest country, the high- 

 est mountains the bull-finch, while the desert has 

 its types. 



The canary finch is a song bird, which is unusual 

 with finches. 



The Redpoll of Europe and Asia is the greatest 

 of emigrants, leaving the Arctic just before the 



