YELLOW-RUMPED FINCH. 
or mode of life.” Later, Gould placed it under the genus Munia, while retaining 
D. castaneothorax under Doiiacola. This is here mentioned, as recently these 
have been claimed to be conspecific. Some birds wliich arrived here in captivity, 
by feeding, became darker and were claimed as showing that D. flavipryma 
was simply a desert form of D. castaneothorax, which could be easily changed 
by climatic conditions. The purity of the captive specimens was not certain, 
as these Finches interbreed, and the bird catchers stated they were found 
together in flocks. Further, in the British ^luseum is preserved a specimen 
of a Gouldian Finch which died in captivity with the head ajid all the breast 
black, but this has never been put forward as suggesting that the Gouldian 
Finch was a desert fonn of a Black Finch. 
The only recent note is that by H. L. White that McLennan at King 
River, 18/11/15, collected, a pair of birds shot amongst flock of M, 
castaneithorax. Ci'op seeds. 
Previously, Rogers collected a specimen at Wyndliam. 
The status of this form is still unsettled and Plate 566 shows the birds 
mentioned above, wliich changed in captivity. These tliree birds all started 
their captivity in the plumage of the top figure. 
DONACOLA THORPEI. 
Lonchura THORPEI Mathews, Austral Avian Record, Vol. TI., pt. 4, p. 78, Dec. 29th, 
1913 : Fitzroy River, North-west Australia. 
I DESCRIBED this : 
“ Differs from the female of L. c. castaneithorax Gould in being muck 
larger and in having the upper- and under-surface darker, the throat brown, 
and in lacking the light shaft-streaks to the feathers on the ear-coverts. Length 
100 mm.; culmen 9, wing 58, tail 31, tarsus 16, middle toe without claw 15.”' 
Is this a sport of cataneithorax Gould ? 
203 
