POEPHILA MIRABILIS, Homb. et J acq . 
Beautiful Grass-Finch. 
Poephila mirabilis, Homb. et Jacq. Voy. au Pole Sud. — O. des Murs, Icon. Orn., pi. 3. fig. 1. 
Fine examples of this, one of the most lovely of the Finches yet discovered, are contained in the gallery of 
the Museum of Natural History of Paris ; they were procured hy Messrs. Hombron and Jacquinot in the 
neighbourhood of Raffles’ Bay, on the north coast of Australia, where it is so rare, that those gentlemen 
only met with three examples, and were unable to make themselves acquainted with its actions and manners. 
In the works above-quoted my Poephila Gouldice is figured as the female of the present bird, hut this I 
believe to be a mistake, the specimen from which my description and figure were taken being to all appear- 
ance an adult male ; and as an evidence that such may he the case, I may mention that no female of the 
group has yet been discovered so gorgeously arrayed ; the females of all the Poephilse I have seen resemble 
their respective males in the colouring of their plumage, but have all the hues much less brilliant ; it is not 
probable therefore that a bird so gaily coloured as the P. Gouldice should be the female of the P. mirabilis ; 
besides which, Mr. Gilbert procured an example of P. Gouldice during Dr. Leichardt’s Expedition from 
Moreton Bay to Port Essington, which dissection proved to he a female, and which although similarly, 
was much less highly coloured than the bird I have represented. 
Crown of the head and cheeks of a beautiful carmine, bounded posteriorly by a narrow line of black ; 
throat black ; to this succeeds a hand of pale blue, narrow on the throat and broad on the back of the neck ; 
back and wings green, passing into yellow at the nape of the neck ; breast crossed by a broad hand of lilac, 
separated from the yellow of the abdomen by a narrow line of orange ; rump and upper tail-coverts pale 
blue ; quills brown ; hill fleshy white, becoming redder at the tip ; feet flesh-colour. 
The figures represent a male in two positions of the natural size. 
