NEOCHMIA. 163 



numbers of them are trapped annually and sent to Sydney, and 

 other markets for sale. The nest of this bird is a large dome- 

 shaped structure, composed of dried grasses, thickly lined with 

 feathers, and is usually placed in a low shrub or among long grass, 

 the eggs are five in number for a sitting, purewhite, specimens taken 

 by Mr. Geo. Barnard of Coomooboolaroo, Queensland, measure : — 

 (A) 0-64 X 0-4:4 inch ; (B) 0-62 x 0-45 inch. October and the 

 three following months constitute the usual breeding period of 

 this species, but like many of the birds of central Queensland, the 

 breeding season is greatly influenced by the rains. 



Hah. Wide Bay District, Dawson River, Richmond and 

 Clarence Rivers Districts, New South Wales, Interior. (^Ramsay ) 



Genus NEOCHMIA, Hombron et Jacqumot. 



'i-^- NEOCHMIA PHAETON, Hombron et Jacquinot. 

 Crimson Finch.. 

 Oould, Handhh. Bds. Aust., Vol. i., sp. 256, p. 315. 



" The eggs here described were taken by Mr. J. Rainbird in 1864 

 from some of the nests at that time common on extensive grass 

 lands near Port Denison. The nest is like all others of the family 

 a flask-shaped structure of grasses, with a long narrow entrance, 

 placed on its side in any convenient place, either in Pandanus trees 

 or adjacent shrubs or among the stronger of the grass stems. The 

 eggs fonr or five for a sitting are small in comparison with the 

 size of the birds ; length 0'65 x 0'45 inch in breadth." {Ramisay, 

 P.L.S., N.S.W., 2nd Series, Vol. i., p. 1148.) 



Mr. J. A. Boyd informs me that a pair of these birds built their 

 nest on the wall-plate in one of the corners of the verandah of his 

 house on the Herbert River, Queensland, utilising the iron roof as 

 a shelter to the nest. In his opinion they were probably induced to 

 do this by some captive compatriots placed there, and the canary 

 seed they picked up near their cage. 



