56 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA. 
possession. In this illustration a pair of the black-headed variety, the original Poephila 
Goulde, occupy a position side by side of one another in the lower portion of the 
picture, while two males and a female of the red or scarlet-headed race, the typical 
Poephila mirabilis, are depicted immediately above them. The females of both these 
species or varieties are readily distinguished, in their adult garb, by their relatively 
sober tints which to many tastes are more pleasing than the brilliant contrasts presented 
by their partner’s plumage. The rich violet and cadmium yellow, common to the 
breasts of the males of both types, is replaced in the females by a delicate satiny 
lilac-pink and pale primrose. In P. mirabilis, the brilliant scarlet-carmine head 
adornment of the male bird is represented in the females by a patch of feathers of a 
darker ruby red, which would appear to rarely occupy as extensive an area as obtains 
in the male. In both varieties it is further notable that the bright grass green 
plumage of the back in the male individuals is replaced by a darker grey or olive in 
the females, and there is also in the latter sex a corresponding relative softening of 
the tone of the narrow band of colour which encircles the head immediately behind 
the black or scarlet, and which, in the male birds, placed in different lights, reflects 
the most brilliant tints of emerald green or turquoise blue. In a second larger picture 
of these Finches, executed for the author by Mr. Keulemans, the birds, some dozen in 
number, are posed in a semi-circle, and constitute so perfect a prismatic arch of 
colour that the painting has been appropriately entitled “An Avian Rainbow.” 
Mr. Gould’s personal acquaintanceship with these tropical Australian finches was 
limited to the possession of preserved skins supplied to him by his agent and co- 
adjutator, Mr. Gilbert, from whom he also received a few meagre data relating to 
their habits. Had Mr. Gould lived but a few years longer and availed himself, as he 
probably would have done, of the opportunities that would have been at his disposal of 
observing the living birds, he would doubtless have placed on record an account of 
some of the phenomena chronicled in this Chapter. 
Anticipating that full particulars concerning these birds would be probably 
included in Dr. A. G. Butler’s Monograph of “Foreign Finches in Captivity ” (Reeve and 
Co.), of which six parts have been published, the author consulted that work. Although, 
however, containing much information relating to the many attempts, few of them 
successful, to breed these finches in this country, and the testimony recorded by various 
authorities concerning the specific distinction or otherwise of the Black and Scarlet-headed 
forms, the work makes no mention whatever of their pronounced vocal talents and 
remarkable terpsichorean accomplishments. Dr. Butler’s omission of reference to these 
