TiENIOPYGIA. 16,6 



Genus T^NIOPYGIA, Reichenhach. 



^ s~0 T^NIOPYGIA CASTANOTIS, ffoM^d 



Chestnut-eared Finch. 

 Gould, Handhk. Bds. Aust, Vol. i., sp. 258, p. 419. 



The Chestnut-eared Finch is found breeding in companies in 

 the neighbourhood of the Lachlan and the Darling Rivers, during 

 September and the two following months. It constructs a flask- 

 shaped nest of dried grass stems cfec, and is placed in the branches 

 of a low tree or thick bush. Eggs five or six in number for a 

 sitting, in colour faint bluish-white ; a set now before me taken 

 by Mr. James Ramsay at Tyndarie, in October 1879, has one 

 specimen (A) with a distinct and well defined band of blue round 

 the centre of the egg ; this is the only occasion that I have ever 

 seen any variation from the typical egg of this species. Length 

 (A) 0-6 X 0-43 inch ; (B) 0-61 x 0-45 inch ; (C) 0-56 x 0-42 inch ; 

 (D) 0-62 X 0-43 inch ; (E) 0-66 x 0-46 inch ; (F) 065 x 045 inch. 



Sets of these eggs in Mr. K. H. Bennett's and my own collection 

 give the same average measurements. 



This bird together with Poephila cincta and P. acuticauda, are 

 breeding readily in confinement in Sydney at all times of the year. 

 In Dr. Ramsay's aviary at the Museum, a brood of T. castanotis 

 and P. acuticauda left the nest on June 3rd, 1887 ; this was the 

 third brood of T.castoMoiis from the same pair of birds since January. 



Sab. Derby, N.W. Australia, Port Darwin and Port Essington, 

 Gulf of Carpentaria, Dawson River, New South Wales, Interior, 

 Victoria and South Australia, West and South-West Australia. 

 (liamsay.) 



Genus DONACICOLA, Gould. 



is. DONACICOLA CASTANEOTHORAX, Gould. 

 Chestnut-breastecl Finch. 

 Gould, Eandbk. Bds. Aust., Vol. i.. sp. 265, p. 426. 



" This species is widely distributed over the whole of the 

 northern parts of New South Wales and Queensland. It breeds 



