SOUTH AND CENTRAL AUSTRALIA 189 



snow falls and getting into Africa and India after 

 the monsoon. 



The Gold-Finch is an imported bird and well 

 established. 



Among the Australian finches the Zebra or Chest- 

 nut-eared Finch is the most widely distributed. Its 

 stronghold is in the south east, map 81, "a," and 

 it varies in plumage all over the continent accord- 

 ing to the physical conditions. It comes of a happy 

 family. At the close of day a dozen will sleep in 

 the same nest; a bottle-shaped loosely built house 

 of grass. A pair will build in the lower sticks of 

 hawk's nest and in fourteen days the young hatch 

 out like little hairy creatures with no sign of 

 feathers. After they join the nearest flock they get 

 fed by the nearest bird having anything to give 

 away. These young birds, hatched in October, will 

 have their own young in March. After a decent 

 rain every "zebra" that can lay eggs does so, and 

 the winter sees an amazing cloud of them. 



THE FAMILY OF TREE-CREEPERS 



(Climacteris) 

 (Plate 1, Fig. 28; Plate 3, Fig. 82) 



There is one general or three minor colour- 

 schemes in Tree-creepers. Four species are found 

 in South Australia, map 82, a d. 



The family is represented in every part of Aus- 

 tralia. Three species in South Australia have their 



