Australian Birds in the Collection of the Linnean Society, 259 



Fringilla temporalis. Lath. Incl. Orn. Supp. xlviii. no. 4. 

 Temporal Finch. Id. Gen. Hist. vi. p. 115. no. 91. Leuin, 

 Birds of Neu^ IIoll. pi. 12. 



" This bird," says Mr. Caley, " which the settlers call Red-bill, 

 is gregarious, and appears at times in very large flocks. 1 have 

 killed above forty at a shot. They frequently visited my garden 

 in the winter to feed on a species of grass-seed." 



Fam. Sturnid.e. 



We have introduced the mention of this family for the pur- 

 pose of stating the great deficiency, if not total want of the 

 birds belonging to it, which prevails in New Holland. In the 

 continents of the Old and New World the Sinrnidœ congre- 

 gate in laroe flocks, and follow the herds of the larç-er herbivo- 

 rous Mammalia, from whom thej?" obtain a great portion of their 

 'nourishment, collecting the insects with which they abound, 

 and the remains of the herbaceous food which are found in 

 their neisihbourhood. The o-eneral want of these herbivorous 

 Quadrupeds in Australia, accounts for a corresponding deficiency 

 in those birds which look to them for a chief portion of their 

 support. A similar deficiency in the Coprophagous insects has 

 been equallj^ observed* in the same country, and a similar 

 cause assigned for it. A species however of the family is now 

 before us, which has been for some time included in our New 

 Holland collection. It bears no note of whence it came, nor 

 any donor's name ; and we have some doubts whether it might 

 not have crept into the collection by mistake. As we have 

 been particularly guarded against introducing any species which 

 has not come to the Society from an authentic source, we 

 refrain from giving it as a New Holland bird, but shall merely 



* See " Hone Entomologie a" part i. p. 5<). 



2 L 2 charac- 



