198 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



for publication in the Feathered World. The bird was bred in 

 London about the year 1887, or 1888, by Mr. R. Ellis. 



The illustration is taken from a living male, formerly in the 

 author's possession, and from preserved skins. 



THE CHERRY FINCH. 



Aidemosyne modesta, GOULD. 



T NHABITS Australia from the Wide Bay District to New South 



1 Wales, Victoria and South Australia : it is a charming and perfectly 



hardy little bird, capable of standing severe winters in an unheated 



aviary ; but it must on no account be permitted to breed excepting at 



a temperature of at least 60 degrees Fahr. 



The male bird above is brown, the feathers of the croup barred 

 with white at the ends ; upper tail coverts darker, and with broad 

 terminal white spots ; tail feathers blackish, the outer ones with a 

 terminal white spot ; wings brown, the flight feathers dusky, paler on 

 the outer edges, the inner secondaries spotted at the ends with white ; 

 crown of head dark brown, shading into dull crimson in front ; a 

 black loral spot ; feathers above and behind the eye and sides of face 

 white, ear-coverts white, barred with brown ; chin and front of throat 

 black ; under surface white ; the neck and sides regularly barred with 

 brown, under wing-coverts whitish; flights ashy. Length 4 ," inches. 

 Beak black ; legs flesh-coloured ; iris chestnut-brown ; lashes blackish. 



The female shows barely a trace of crimson on the forehead, has 

 no black on the chin and throat, which are barred like the neck and 

 sides ; the under parts are also uniformly greyer in tint than in the 

 cock bird. Length 4^ inches. 



In the summer, of 1892, I purchased a pair of Cherry Finches 

 from Mr. Abrahams and turned them into my coolest aviary ; about 

 the end of the year they began to build, and constructed a very firm 

 and artistic nest in a cypress shrub ; the nest was chiefly formed 



