THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
I have quoted the above notes as there can be httle question from the 
birds examined that these birds are very closely related and appear only sub- 
specificaUy separable, and it -will be noted that the above accounts are more 
or less contradictory and apparently depend upon more or less careful 
observation with recourse to series of specimens actually procured. 
The Banded Finch w^as named by Vigors and Horsfield from Broad Sound, 
Queensland, and when Gould received specimens from North-west Australia 
collected by Bynoe and Bring he separated them as a distinct species, remarkmg 
that it differed in the spots and marldngs on the upper-smiaee being rather 
less defined, and in the colouring of the rump, which m tliis species is black, 
wLile in the other it is wliite. As the black and wdiite colouring of the rump 
varies in quantity, the forms are reaUy only of subspecific rank, and in 
my “ Reference List ” in 1912 I so ranged these, adding two other subspecies, 
placing them under the genus Munia thus : 
Munia bichenovii bichenovii (Vigors and Horsfield). 
Queensland. 
Munia bichenovii pallescens Mathews. 
“ Differs from M. b. bichenovii in being fighter above and paler below. 
Bourke, New South Wales.” 
New South Wales. 
Munia bichenovii bandi Mathews. 
“ A pallid form intermediate between M. b. bichenovii and M, b. 
annulosa ; not as pale as the latter, though paler than M. 1. pallescem 
Alexandra, Northern Territory.” 
Northern Territory. 
Munia bichenovii annulosa (Gould). 
North-west Australia. 
Li his “Handbook” Gould used the genus name Stictoptera, proposed by 
Reichenbach for this species, and Sharpe followed in the Catalogue of Birds 
in the British Museum, and hence custom followed. Oberholser in 1899 pointed 
out that tliis name was preoccupied and therefore unavailable and proposed 
Stizoptera to replace it. Oberholser’s genus name was accepted by nie m my 
1913 “ List,” the above four subspecies being recognised. 
Recently, as given imder Tavistocka (ante), I showed that Steganopleura was 
first legitimately used by Bonaparte in this comiection, and I therefore here replace 
Oberholser’s name by Bonaparte’s, but still admit the four subspecies thus: 
Steganopleura bichenovii bichenovii (Vigors and Horsfield). 
Steganopleura bichenovii pallescens (Mathews) for the white-rumped form 
and 
Steganopleura bichenovii bandi (Mathews). 
Steganopleura bichenovii annulosa (Gould) for the black-rumped form. 
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