243 



■cheeks and chin, centre of neck and chest brilliant scarlet ; 

 throat and under surface of body black, sides of breast and body- 

 regularly scaled with pure white crescentic markings. By refer- 

 ence even to the uncoloured plate the areas of scarlet on the face, 

 chin, throat and chest are plainly discernible, being shown as 

 whitish on the lithograph. Under tail-coverts black and under- 

 side of tail brown ; upper mandible black, tipped with scarlet ; 

 lower mandible scarlet, blue at base. Total length 4J inches. 



Adult female : Similar to the male in general body colour- 

 ing, but has only a small area of scarlet round the eye and only a 

 few crescentic scarlet markings in the centre of chest; the entire 

 absence of scarlet on the cheeks, chin and throat, being alone 

 an ample distinction between the sexes. The white markings of 

 the under surface are continued right up to the base of the lower 

 mandible. A reference to the plate will make these distinctions 

 quite clear. 



It only remains now to gather together by paginal refer- 

 ence the disjointed notes that have already appeared in various 

 issues, and I much fear these additional notes contain little that 

 is new. 



Of the aforementioned fifteen pairs, so far no record is to 

 .hand of any success in breeding them. With several they have 

 nested, our esteemed members Mrs. K. L. Miller and Messrs. 

 Keith-Murray and Hetley have all got as far as eggs, but in no 

 case has a single youngster been hatched out, and Dr. Hetley 

 has been equally unfortunate as myself with the female. I cer- 

 tainly hope sufficient females will survive the winter to give some 

 chance of the species being perpetuated in captivity. 



The various nesting notes occur in current volume — July 

 issue, page 135, and in October issue, page 1S0; further general 

 notes were also given in July issue, pages 121 and 122. 



Though little more than vain repetition I must repeat that 

 the honour of introducing this species to English aviculture be- 

 longs to the late Herr Wiener. In 1869 he procured his first pair 

 under the name of "Julian Finches"; while four years later he 

 procured another pair under the name of '' Australian Mountain 

 Diamond Sparrows." Since that period till 1906 or 1907 I do not 

 .know of any living specimens having reached this country, and 



