19.5



Hvicultural fllbagasine,



BEING THE JOURNAL OF THE


AVICULTURAL SOCIETY.



New Series— VOL. V. — NO. 7. — All rights reserved. MAY, 1907.


THE YELLOW-RUMPED FINCH,


(Munia flaviprymnaj


AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE CHESTNUT-

BREASTED FINCH,


(M. castaneithorax) '.

By D. Seth-Smith, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U.


Within recent years at least few birds have caused quite

such a sensation in the avicultural world as the Yellow-ruraped

Finch, the Munia flaviprymna of Gould. In the Avicultural

Magazine for May 1905, I recorded the history of the species so

far as it was then known, and I called attention to the fact that

before the arrival, in 1904, of the first living specimen in Europe,

the species was only known by some two or three museum

specimens. Thanks however to that enterprising collector,

Mr. Payne, of Messrs. Payne and Wallace, who is probably

responsible for all the living Yellow-rumped Finches that

have reached this country, the species may now be observed in

the aviaries of numbers of aviculturists in this country.


Since my short paper, above referred to, Mr. W. E.

Teschemaker has contributed an exhaustive and most interesting

article to our pages (Feb. 1907) describing the successful rearing

of young of this species and also its near ally M. castaneithorax.


The object of the present contribution is to describe a

remarkable change of plumage which takes place in a small

percentage of adult examples of Munia flaviprymna, a change

for which no satisfactory solution appears to be at present

forthcoming:.



