170 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



that of upper surface, especially on throat, spotted all 

 over with silvery wliitish spots, smallest on throat, 

 largest and least numerous on the sides ; remainder of 

 body below pale creamy yellowish buff ; under tail- 

 coverts white ; under wing-coverts and axillaries white, 

 edge of wing yellow at shoulder; flights below ashy 

 grey ; beaJc coral red ; feet chrome yellow ; iridee 

 salmon-red. Female with the scarlet on the head re- 

 stricted to the forehead, lores and orbital ring; olive of 

 under surface paler and greyer, abdomen whiter. Hab., 

 " North-west Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland, 

 and Mew South Wales " (Campbell). 



Mr. Gould saw this bird " rather thinly dispersed on 

 the sides of the river Namoi, particularly along the 

 sloping Ixinks covered with herbage, where it appeared 

 to be feeding " upon seeds of gra.s-ses, et<;. He adds, " I 

 also frequently observed it amcng the rushes which 

 grow in the beds of mud along the sides of the water." 



In his "Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds," Mr. 

 A. J. Campbell publishes the following notes on the 

 habits of Balhilda: "I observed the Red-faced, or, as 

 it is sometimes called, the ' Star' Finch, flying in Hocks 

 in company with its pretty crimson cousin, Neochmin 



JiUFOUS-TAILKD Fl.NCHIi?. 



phaeton, in Northern Queensland." " The eggs of this 

 species in my collection were taken on March 20th, 

 1877, in the Gulf of Carpentaria district, by Mr. T. A. 

 Gulliver, and were those described by me after my 

 return from Queensland, 1886." 



The nest and eggs are thus described by Mr. Camp- 

 bell, p. 492: "Nest. — The usual bottle-shaped structure 

 of grasses, but generally plucked green ; lined with 

 finer grass and sometimes a few feathers, and placed in 

 a low bush or in tall grass. Effgs. — Clutch, five; long 

 oval in shape ; texture of shell fine ; surface slightly 

 plossv ; colour pure white. Dimensions in inches : (1) 

 .7 bv .48, (2) .68 by .48, (3) .6 by .46." 



The song of the Rufous-tailed Orassfinch is a barely 

 audible sibilant twittering, and the attitude assumed bv 

 the bird is that of a typical Grass Finch, so that Gould 

 was palpably wrong when he referred the species to 

 EKirelda. 



A fair number of specimens of this little Finch were 

 imported between the years 1893 and 1895, but they 

 also commanded a high price (£5 for a single pair not 

 being considered by any means deiir). Nevertheless, I 

 thought myself fortunate in obtaining a very perfect 

 pair for less than half that sum. Had I known how 



freely it would be imported about ten years later 1 

 .should have waited. 



When kept in a flight cage, so far as could be judged 

 by that first pair, the hen luis a stupid habit of plucking 

 her mate, so that I lost my male bird within about a 

 month. I then turned her into a large flight with a 

 cock Zebra Finch and hoped to breed Mules. A nest 

 was built in a Hartz cage, and the hen was generally 

 squatting therein, but at the end of six months she 

 died on the nest, having somehow managed to rip 

 open her abdomen. This early loss of a pair of expen- 

 sive little Finches finally decided me never again to 

 spend so much upon so little, but whenever I should 

 again consider myself at liberty to be extravagant to 

 make sure of having more to show, and that of more 

 lasting material for my money. When nothing 

 remains but a dead l)ody the size of that of an Avadavat 

 one feels ashamed to have squandered pounds upon it. 



In 1905 I purchased a pair of these birds, and turned 

 them into my smaller outdoor aviarj', where they built 

 in a box and began to lay, but were disturbed by 

 Pectoral Finches ; later on the cock bird died. I 

 bought a second pair, and again the cock died. Lastly, 

 in 1906, I bought a very handsome cock bird, which 

 lived about a year. Both hens continued to live and 

 flourish, but they did not seem inclined to pair up with 

 any other species in the aviary. As a rule, the hens of 

 the small Weaving-finches are more delicate than the 

 cocks, but in the present species this rule seems to be 

 reversed. 



This Grassfinch was first bred by Mr. Nicholson, 

 and since that date several other aviculturists have 

 been equally suocesstul. An account of the species, 

 illustrated by a coloured plate of both se.xes, was pub- 

 lished by Mr. D. Seth-Smith {Avk. Mag., 1st Ser., 

 Vol. v., pp. 61-64). 



FiRE-TAiLED Grass-finch (ZoncEginthus beUu.<s). 



Above brown, narrowly barred with blackish ; the 

 primaries indistinctly bai-red with paler brown on the 

 outer web ; rump and upper tail-coverts carmine red ; 

 central tail-feathers black, washed towards base v.'ith 

 carmine, the remainder with pale brown bars on the 

 outer web ; black bars on the head very fine ; frontal 

 band, lores, and orbital feathers black ; a bare bluish 

 zone encircling the eye ; under surface of body pale 

 silveiy greyish, barred with black, most finely on 

 throat and front of neck ; lower abdomen and under 

 tail-coverts black ; under wing-coverts pale tawny, 

 with faint dusky bars; beak crimson, paler at base-of 

 upper mandible ; feet flesh-coloured ; irides dark brown. 

 Female not diilerentiated, but probably with narrower 

 black bars on the under surface of the body. Habitat, 

 " South Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South 

 Australia, and Tasmania, including Kent Group and 

 Fiirncaux Group in Basra's Strait " (Campbell). Gould 

 says (" Handbook to the Birds of Australia," I., pp. 406, 

 407) : " Tasmania may be considered the principal 

 habitat of the species, for it is universally and 

 numerously dispersed over all parts of that island 

 suited to its habits and economy. It also inhabits New 

 South Wales, but is there far less abundant. I 

 generally observed it in small communities, varying 

 from six to a dozen in number, searching on the ground 

 for seeds of grasses and other small plants which grow 

 on the plains and open parts of the forest. It also 

 frequents the gardens and pleasure-grounds of the 

 .settlers, with whom it is a favourite, few birds being 

 more lame or more beautifully oolonre<l than this liitle 

 Finch, the brilliant scarlet of the rump and base of 

 the tail feathers strongly contrasting with the more 



