BIRDS. 55 



half-a-dozen adult birds of the common Tasmanian species, Zosterops dorsalis, came into 

 the writer's possession and were experimentally liberated and supplied with food in a 

 large glass-enclosed verandah, where they had abundant room to enjoy full flight. It 

 was noted then how diligently they sought out and devoured the aphides with which 

 many of the plants in the flower-stands were affected. By the time this source of 

 supply was exhausted the birds had become so tame and accustomed to the writer's 

 presence that, on his bringing a green branch in from the garden, they would pitch upon 

 it while held in his hand, and search for and appropriate its insect treasures. An 

 observation recorded of these experimentally domesticated birds was the circumstances 

 that they always burst into the fullest song when the rain was pattering on the 

 verandah roof. Wild individuals roving freely in their native haunts were observed 

 to sing most vigorously in a similar manner during falling rain. 



Apart from the generally expressed, but by no means correct, statement that 

 no Australian birds are songsters, the assertion that the brightest members of the 

 feathered tribe are mute or productive only of discordant sounds is accepted as a 

 universal truism. As obtains, however, in the case of most general rules, several 

 more or less conspicuous exceptions occur. In this special association a remarkably 

 brilliant one is yielded by the avifauna of North Australia. Writing of the beautiful 

 Grass, or Gouldian, Finch, Poephila Gouldce, in his monumental work, the 

 " Birds of Australia," the late Mr. John Gould remarks : " It is beyond the power 

 of my pen to describe, or my pencil to portray, anything like the splendour of the 

 changeable hue of the lilac band which crosses the breast of this little gem, or the 

 scarcely less beautiful green of the neck and the golden yellow of the breast ; the 

 latter colour is only equalled, certainly not surpassed, by the crest feathers of the 

 Golden Pheasant. Whenever this bird becomes so far common as to form a part of 

 our preserved collections, or to add a living lustre to our aviaries, it cannot fail to 

 become a general favourite." 



Since the publication of Mr. Gould's work in 1848, this finch and the yet more 

 brilliant Scarlet-headed species or variety, the Poephila mirabilis of the same authority, 

 have come to be imported extensively into the English market, and, though somewhat 

 high in price, are at most times procurable at the first-class dealers. 



Much of the otherwise necessarily elaborate description of the marvellous tints 

 of these most exquisite little finches may be saved by a reference to the coloured 

 Plate, Chromo II., facing page 39, which has been specially executed for this work 

 by the talented bird artist, J. G. Keulemans, from living specimens in the author's 



