FIRE-TAILED FINCH. 
Coorong ajid Lakes Alexandriim and Albert, S.A., in September and October, 
1897, when I found several nests, but in every instance the yoiuig were hatched 
and some were fuUy fledged, shoving that they breed earlier than in Tasmania ; 
the birds were somewhat different in appearance than the Tasmanian birds, 
being finer in the freckled appearance of the feathers and not so dark in 
coloration; they were foimd in the tea-tree country and where the scrub and 
bushes were thick. I have observed tins species all over Tasmania, which seems 
to be its principal habitat, where it is found in numerous situations both in 
open country and tliickly bushed lulls and ravines, where it lives on small 
grass seeds, the breeding-season being from November to February and 
March.” 
Mr. Frank Littler has written me : “ Tins is the only Finch fotmd in 
Tasmania, where it frequents dense scrubby country and the undergrowth 
near springs, the food being seeds and small snails. When flushed it rises with 
a loud whirring noise like a small Quail, the flight being rapid, though not long 
sustained. When on the wing the scarlet nunp is alw’ays conspicuously displayed. 
Its note is a low, plaintive whistle, wliich sounds very mournful when all else 
is still. This Finch generally associates in small flocks of from twelve to thirty, 
but in the breeding-season, which lasts from November to January, pairs only 
are seen together.” 
A. G. Campbell, reporting upon the birds of Kangaroo Island, wrote : 
“ Of aU species noted this was, perhaps, the one least expected. Several pairs 
were seen, both among the white gums flanking the inland lagoons, and among 
the sugar-gxuns oti the liver flat near its mouth. In company with ^gintha 
emporalis it was nesting in the underscrub. A specimen procured, in comparison 
with one from Victoria, shows the upper-surface not olive, but grey, like the 
under-surface. The length of ving is 2'3 in.” 
Of this species, the type of Zonceginthus, and hence the genus name has 
remained xuichanged, no subspecies was named imtil I separated the 
Kangaroo Island form, and in my 1913 “ List ” I admitted: 
Zonceginthus bellus bellus (Latham) 
New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, 
South Australia. 
Zonoeginthics bellus samueli Mathews. 
“ Differs from Z. b. bellus in its very much lighter coloiu’ and in wanting the 
black patch on the belly.” 
Kangaroo Island. 
However, as MeUor and Captain S. A. White have pointed out, there are other 
subspecies: 
Zonceginthm bellus tasmanica (Mathews). 
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