on the Olive Finch.



165



off of the corner), abutting but never encroaching upon the

black vertical line, a narrow one if you like but always unbroken.

The black above and the black below are connected by the black

line of the fore-neck, after the manner of a minute-glass. The

same arrangement of feather obtains in the female, although in

her it is but ill-defined. I have recently been examining the

throat of a female :—“ Chin chestnut brown, shading downwards

into a very dark, almost a black and by no means obscure, bar

across the throat, just above the yellow collar ; from the centre

of this bar drops the shade of the fore-neck, which entirely dis¬

perses as it flows into the ashy breast.” Returning to the male,

in a good healthy fully adult example, the black line of the fore-

neck divides below, and, branching off horizontally to right and

left, edges the lower side of each yellow arm of the collar, shading

downwards into the brownish black breast. The density and extent

of the patch of blackish on the breast seem to vary with the state

of the bird’s health, and, I think, decidedly increase as the nest¬

ing season approaches. This species stands rather by itself in

Phonipara, whereas all the other species, sub-species, varieties or

races in the genus are, in all their ways so far as I know and read

of them, simply Olive Finches, some of which have been taking

a bath in the ink pot—some more, some less—and then have

fluttered down the nearest sooty chimney that came in their way.


The Olive Finch, P. lepida (or olivacea), may be thus briefly

described ; Male : —Above dull olive ; a superciliary stripe, lores,

and a patch on the chin and upper throat orange yellow, very

rich in good fully adult examples; rest of throat, &e., black; a

narrow line of black borders the yellow of the throat and reaches

to the front of the eye ; under parts olivaceous gray. Female :—

"‘Racking the black of head and throat in the male ; the yellow

is much less conspicuous and paler; belly dull gray ; the olive of

the back duller than in the male. Length 4 inches.” I must

add that although the female “ lacks the black ” she does not lack

the lines, for in old females the dark lines are well marked. The

young birds lack the black and yellow, which appear during the

first moult, when they are about three months old ; these colours,

especially perhaps the yellow and dark line-marks oir the female,

become better and more sharply defined as the birds arrive at



