RED-EARED FINCH. 
to tree. The natives of the momitain districts of Western Australia have a 
tradition that the first bird of this species speared a dog and drank its blood, 
and thus obtamed its red bill.’ ” 
]\Ir. Tom Carter has Avritten me : “ The Red-eared Finch is given in your 
1912 ‘ Reference List ’ as ranging through Western Austraha. It is confined 
to the coastal districts of the extreme south-west, and the greatest distance at 
which I have obtamed it from the coast is about thirty-five miles. The birds 
usually feed hi family parties in the exceedhigly dense scrub of the swamps 
(fresh water), and their presence can be told by the rather melancholy calls 
of the birds to each other, especially when the parents are attending newly- 
fledged young. On two occasions I shot one of these birds from the upper 
limbs of Karri tress on the Margaret River. Nests containing eggs were never 
found by me, although I have frequently searched swamps where the birds 
habitually occur, in September, January and February, and have seen old 
nests, made of grass, and long m shape, that I think could only have been built 
by these Finches. The breeding-season is almost certainly end of November 
and December, as on many occasions, early in January, I have seen recently- 
fledged yomig birds being fed by their parents.” 
^Milligan, reporting upon the birds of the Margaret River district. South¬ 
west Australia, stated : “I saw a great number of these charming little Finches, 
as also their bottle-shaped nests. These latter, however, were old ones. They 
were just begiiming to build on my first visit. Many of the birds could be seen 
carrying the stems of long, dry grass whilst flying. They appear to be a very 
local bird, for I only saw them at Ngoocardup Brook, and then within an area 
of 20 acres. Their call is a peculiar series of notes, uttered softly, and 
resembling ‘ kwinkee wee wee wee. . . ” 
Captam S. A. White also noted it in the same district, and Alexander has 
recorded it as “ Frequent ” at Bremer Bay, 100 miles east of Albany, but 
does not include it m his List of the Birds of the Perth District, so Gilbert’s birds 
must have been secm'ed hJand. 
Though no subspecies have yet been distmguished in this species, the 
specimens from Perth, the type locality of Gould’s birds, do not agree with 
those from King George’s Sound, the true type locality of Quoy and Gaimard’s 
species. I therefore name the former and allow two subspecies : 
Zanceginthiis ociilatus oculatus (Quoy and Gaimard). 
King George’s Sound, South-west Australia. 
Zonceginthus oculakts gaimardi (Mathews). • 
Differs from Z. o. oculatus Quoy and Gaimard in its paler coloration and smaller 
size. 
Perth, West Australia. 
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