n6 Mr. W. E. Teschemakek,


"Yellow-rumps to a gentleman in Sydney (N.S.W.) three years

"ago and the last time I was there (about a year ago) they were

" still Yellow-rumps. Climatic changes and the change of diet

"also have a lot to do with the change of feather. We have a

"few Bichenos that have moulted off with the bauds nearly

"obliterated by black feathering, when there should be pure

"white. "Payne and Wallace."


One fact stands out very clearly, I think, in this interesting

letter; and that is that the Yellow-rumped Finch does not

inhabit the same districts as the Chestnut Finch. It is clear that

the former is a bird of the desert and we at once see a reason for

its buff colouring, which would be very inconspicuous in a bare

sandy country. Mr. Payne also gives us a good reason for this

species being compelled to leave its home in the great wilderness

of the far interior namely — drought. If we recall the fact that

from 1899 to 1904 a great and — even for that thirsty land —

unprecedented drought was experienced over an enormous area

of Western and North-Western Australia, and that the last year

of this drought coincided with the appearance of the Yellow-

rumped Finch in the districts near the coast, we can better

understand how it came about that a species, of which, in the

sixty-five years following its discovery, only a single specimen

reached this country (viz., that obtained by Mr. J. R. Elsie in

1856), became, in the short space of a year, a drug in the

market.


We can now perhaps clear the air a little by summarizing

what we have definitely ascertained about M. flaviprymna.


(i). We have learned that M. flaviprymna is a desert


species ;


(ii). That it does not normally associate with M.


castaneithorax ;


(iii). That a certain small proportion (estimated by


me at two per cent.) of the former species, assume certain of


the characteristic markings of the latter, in a greater or less


degree ;


(iv). But that by far the larger proportion have not


undergone any change during the time they have been


under observation in captivity. Dr. Butler writes me that



