Bi)d Ncies from Far and Near. 
"3 
EiiD Motes from Jfar aiiD IRear. 
A Few Rhmakks about the Wild Life of the Gouldian 
Finch (by G. A. Heuiuaiin). 
The following notes, vvliich are compiled from the Die 
Gefiederte Welt, were incited by an article by Herr Pfarrer Blume 
in an earlier issne of the D.G. W. 
The very interesting article above referred to, I read with 
great interest and pleasure I should like to impart to the 
readers of D.G. IV. a few of my observations of the Gouldian 
Finch in its native wilds, made during my stay in Queensland. 
These beautiful birds, usually called here Red or Black 
Pointers, range over the entire north of Queensland, and indeed 
from Townsville northerh'. During the breeding season, Sep- 
tember to December, they fly in pairs, afterwards in crowds of 
from five to six hundred head. But it is the details of pairing 
and incubation which will doubtless prove of greatest interest, 
and I at once come to the much contested point — are the Red- 
headed a variety or a separate species ? 
In my opinion they are merely a variety, inasmuch that I 
liave seen the Red-headed males paired with Black-headed 
females, and vice versa, — the broods of such are therefore mixed. 
I have often looked on and watched such pairs feeding their 
young, so that a mistake was quite impossible. 
The nest is usually placed in a low bush; it is spherical, 
with either a lateral or lop entrance hole. Often, also, I have 
seen the l)irds weave up the butt end with upright long prairie 
grass, so that discovery of the nest is difficult indeed. 
The clutch consists of from four to six white eggs, how- 
ever 1 have seldom found more than three to four young in one 
nest. 
To fathom the colour of the young has not been !)Ossible. 
The young are fed solely on seeds, so far as I could observe, and 
I have never seen one of these birds feed their young with a 
caterpillar or soft food. 
These finches are caught, after \.\\&y assemble together in 
flocks, with nets at watering places ; for the.se during the drj' 
season are rare, and that explains also the circumstance that 
