PINCHES. 
153 
fig. 2) : the tail is shorty the general colour of the plumage 
in the female is grey or brown^ while the adult males are 
jet black ; they feed in flocks on the ground. Mr. Darwin^ 
has seen one of these thick-billed finches picking at the end 
of a piece of cactus^ while a large lizard {Amhlyrhjnchus) 
was eating at the other ; and so little afraid was the bird^ 
that it afterwards hopped on the back of the reptile with 
the utmost indifference. 
Mr. Gould^ in the third volume of his ^ Birds of Austra- 
lia/ mentions a very curious fact connected with the nest- 
making of a pretty little finch which is abundant in New 
South "Wales (Spotted-sided Pinch^ Amadina LatJiami), 
This little bird builds the cradle of its youngs and nurses its 
fledglings^ not anfrequently among the large sticks forming 
the under part of the eyrie of the smaller species of eagles. 
What adds to the curiosity of the circumstance is^ that 
both the finch and the rapacious eagle hatch and rear their 
progeny in harmony. Mr. Gould tells us^ that at other 
times these birds build their nests on the leafy branches of 
a gum or apple tree ; the nest is of large size^ nearly sphe- 
rical^ and has a short pendent spout on one side^ through 
which the bird gets access to the interior. 
* Journal, p. 471. 
