SPOTTED-SIDED FINCH. 
Adult male. Top of the head gre 5 % indistinctly banned with olive ; scapulars, secondaries, 
mantle and lower back olive, suffused ^ith grey and indistinctly barred with 
darker olive; rump and upper tail-coverts briglit crimson ; tail glossy black; 
quills imifomx olive-brown; loros black; under-smlace of body w'hite with a 
broad band across the entire chest glossy black; sides of the body glossy black, 
each feather having a white spot at its extremity ; under wing and under tail-coverts 
wliite; under aspect of quills bro^vnish-gi*ey. Eyes coral-red, feet slaty-brown; 
bill dark red, the upper mandible with blue tinge. Total length 120 mm. ; culmen 
9, wing 73, tail 43, tarsus 20. Figured. Collected 50 miles N.E. of Adelaide 
(J.K>w'-ranges), South Australia, on the 4th of April, 1912. 
Adult female. Similar to the adult male. 
Immature. Hoad gre\ish-olive; mantle, wing-covorls and scapulars olive-browm; 
low^or back, rump and upper tail-coverts glossy crimson; tail-feathers deep 
blackish-browm with black shafts to the feathers; cheeks and ear-coverts similar 
to the head; chin, throat, breast and belly wiiite, separated by a broad band of 
brownish-grey feathers across the chest; sides and flanks greyish-olive with 
equidistant bars of brownish-black and white ; flight-feathers above and below 
brownish-grey with black shafts. Eyes grey, feet slate, bill black. Collected 
at Stansbrng, York Peninsula, South Australia, on the 16th of April, 1911. 
Immaktre. Top of the head and hind-neck olive-grey; mantle, scapulars and wing- 
coverts greyish-olive; lower back, rump and upper tail-coverts bright glossy 
crimson; tail-feathers brownish-black; flight-feathers brownish-olive, narrowly 
mar^ned on the outer web wdth olive; cheeks and ear-coverts olive-grey ; chin 
and throat w^hite; band across the chest brownish-grey with a few minute spots 
of white at the extremity of the feathers ; sides of the chest and sides of the body 
olive-brown with wide bars of greyish-w'hite, and with a few bluckish-brown 
feathers with an oval spot of pure wdiite; remainder of under-parts, including the 
under tail-coverts, white; under aspect of quills brownish-grey. Collected in 
New South Wales. 
Eggs. Four to seven eggs form the clutch, but usually five. A clutch of five eggs taken 
at Clarenza, South Grafton, Clarence River, New South Wales, on the 30th of 
January, 1898, is of a pxire white. Long swollen ovals in shape. Surface of shell 
fine, smooth, and slightly glossy, 17-18 by 12-13 mm. 
Nest. A long bottle-shaped structure, placed on its side; composed of a mass of thin 
dried grasses, and lined inside with finer grass. Generally placed in a bush or 
small tree, where the branches and foliage are growing closely together, and 
foiming a suitable shelter. Dimensions of nest: 10 to 13 inches long, by 20 inches 
or more in cii’cumference. 
Breeding-months. August to end of December or January. 
Among the Watling and Lambert drawings are several of Finches and some 
of these Latham named. One he caUed the Whiteheaded Finch because it 
was a poor painting, but no field-notes were attached. Vigors and Horsfield 
recognised this species among the birds in the collection of the linnean Society 
but stated that every specimen out of the numberless birds of tliis species ” 
they had seen had greyish-brown heads and therefore proposed for it a new 
name, Fringilla lathamL They added : Mr. Caley calls this species Red 
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