SPOTTED-SIDED FINCH. 
strong bill, with the other end streanihig away far behind them over their 
back. Then' call-note is a long-drawm-out mournful wliistle, which is very 
difficult to distinguish from one note of the female Petroica bicolorP 
Mr. E. E. Howe wrote ; “ The sweet crescendo ‘ kweet ’ of tliis Finch is 
heard throughout the district, but ahvays in the open and grassy comitry that 
has a good covering of sapUngs. There their bulky nests are foimd, young as 
early as October, and eggs as late as January, two broods being reared. At 
Parw'on have noticed them in the winter months roosting in old nests of 
Pomatorhimis. ’ ’ 
Mr. A. G. Campbell’s note states that “ in Victoria found throughout the 
more hghtly-timbered areas. It is fond of searchmg among horse-droppings 
on country roads for food.” 
Mr. J. W. Mellor has ^written : “ The ‘ Diamond Sparrow,’ as it is commonly 
called, is very widely distributed. I have seen it in Queensland, New South 
Wales and Victoria. Throughout South Austraha it is found in both plain 
and hiUy country, but generally w'here trees and vegetation occur, wdth plenty 
of grass and w'ater. It has a peculiarly plaintive and long-drawn note which 
it utters with its little head erect and neck outstretched, the bill bemg slightly 
opened; the note is repeated at mtervals. It feeds on grass seeds and small 
grain, which it procmes from the verdant places it loves to inliabit. I have 
w’atched them hopping about the ground, securing seed from the short prostrate 
weeds, so they do good in eating up the seeds of various weeds, and thus 
preventing them from spreading. The nesting-season starts about August and 
ends in January, sometimes two broods bemg reared in the one season. They 
sometimes fly in small coveys of six to eight, but often only m pairs.” 
Le Souef and Macpherson have written about Sydney, the original locality 
whence this bird was described : “ The Diamond-Sparrow or Spotted-sided 
Finch is often numerous in the comparatively open coimtry of some of the 
outlying suburbs.” 
Mrs. Norton has given a full accomit of the breeding-habits which is too 
long to reproduce here, but which should be referred to by everyone interested 
in these birds. She recorded “that they built a nest m which they did not lay 
any eggs in the autumn, but used the half-finished nest as a roosting and sleeping 
place tin about mid-winter, when the rigours of the winter in such an exposed 
place, or the shortage of food, sent them away. They reappeared in the spring, 
finished their old, half-built nest and reared a family of foiu*. . . . Dining 
the cold months (which are very cold here—^New England district, N.S.W.) 
they all retire to the more sheltered bush. At any rate, they aU leave the 
garden, but isolated pairs can always be found out in the bush aU through the 
winter.” 
VOL. XII. 
161 
