146 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



hairdresser in one of the most elegant streets of the town had a 

 number of foreign birds." "In the hairdresser's stock of birds I saw, 

 to my astonishment, a pair of Emblema picta, which their owner was 

 pleased to call 'Australian Mountain Diamond Sparrows.' I left Liver- 

 pool with the prize in my possession, and have wished ever since I 

 had known then what I know now, about the best and safest treat- 

 ment of rare Australian Finches." 



"A few years later, in 1877, I paid one of my periodical visits to 

 Mr. Hawkins' shop in Bear Street, Leicester Square, who showed me 

 the bodies of some birds which had died soon after their arrival from 

 Antwerp. Among these was the body of a young male Painted Finch. 

 Dr. Russ received one live specimen from Hamburg * * * and heard 

 of another which arrived at Trieste. It is thus abundantly clear that 

 the Painted Finch does arrive sometimes." 



"Should this magnificent bird ever come into the hands of an 

 amateur, let him give millet in the ear, flowering grass, and a few 

 mealworms." 



Dr. Russ includes this species among the Astrilds; but says that 

 its mode of life is similar to that of the Diamond Finch. He mentions 

 having received a dead female from Mr. Wiener, in 1874, and says 

 that he bought one four years previously in London ; he proceeds : 



"Up to that time only one head had come to hand, brought with 

 him by Mr. Bynoe, from the north-west coast of Australia, yet with- 

 out information as to its life when at liberty, and as the explorer 

 Gould was robbed of this, together with other rare birds, this species 

 was only known by the illustration which Mrs. Gould painted. Thanks 

 to the extension of the fancy, and of the bird-trade, several have since 

 reached us alive ; two were given by me to the Zoological Museum in 

 Berlin. Mr. Preyer, in Trieste, possessed one in 1875, and Miss 

 Hagenbeck sent me a Painted Astrild in 1877." 



In his Fremdlandischen Stubenvogel Dr. Russ gives no additional 

 information respecting this species. 



Illustrations from skins in the Natural History Museum. 



