Order PASSERIFORMES. 
No. 715. 
Family PLOGEIDM. 
AIDEMOSYNE MODESTA. 
PLUM-HEAD FINCH. 
(Plate 569.) 
Amadina MODESTA Gould, Synops. Birds Austr., pt. i., pi. (10), Jan. 1st, 1837; New 
South Wales. 
Amadina modcsta Gould, Synops. Birds Austr., pt. i., pi. (10), Jan. 1837; id., Proc. Zool. 
Soc. (Bond.) 1836, p. 105, Feb. 20th, 1837; id., Birds Austr., pt. xxv. (Vol. III., 
pi. 85), Dec 1st, 1846. 
Steganopleura modesta Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Av., Vol. I., p. 457, 1850. 
Aidemosyjie modesta Reichenbach, Die Sing. Vogel, p. 14, 1862; Gould, Handb. Birds 
Austr., Vol. I., p. 414, 1865 ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., Vol. XIII., p. 368, 
1890 ; Hall, Key Birds Austr., p. 50, 1899 ; Campbell, Nests and Eggs Austr. 
Birds, Vol. I., p. 489, 1901 ; Smedley, Emu, Vol. IV., p. 68, 1904 (Q.); Mathews, 
Handl. Birds Austral., p. 102, 1908 ; North, Austr. Mus. Spec. Cat., No. 1, Vol. II., 
p. 287, 1909; Mathews, List Birds Austr., p. 301, 1913; Black, Emu, Vol. XVII., 
p. 228, 1918 (Q.). 
Estrelda modesta Gray, Handl. Gen. Sp. Birds B.M., Vol. II., p. 52, 1870 ; Ramsay, Proc. 
Limr. Soc. N.S.W., Vol. II., p. 186, 1878; id.. Tab. List Austr. Birds, p. 10, 1888. 
Munia modesta Mathews, Nov. Zool., Vol. XVTII., p. 430, 1912. 
Aidemosyne modesta nogoa Mathews, Austral Avian Record, Vol. H., pt. 7, p. 132, Jan. 28th, 
1915 ; Queensland. 
Aidemosyne modesta modesta Mathews, ih. 
Distribution. Victoria, New South Wales, South Queensland. 
Adult male. Fore-head and top of the head duU vinous-crimson ; back of the head, neck, 
mantle and lower back deep olive-brown ; rump and upper tail-coverts same colour 
as the mantle, but each feather subterminaUy barred with wliite; wing-coverts 
and imiormost secondaries deep olive-brown tipped and marked with wliite; 
primaries brownish-ash, margined on the outer web with olive; tail-feathers black, 
the outer pairs with a white spot at the extremity ; lores black; cliin dull vinous- 
crimson ; sides of the face silvery-wliite ; feathers over the eye, ear-coverts, throat, 
sides of the neck, chest and sides of the body barred with white and olive-brown 
in regular alternate bars ; middle of the belly and abdomen and under tail-coverts 
wliite; under-surface of wing greyish-ash, slightly margined on the inner web 
with whitish-buff. Total length 120 mm.; culmen 9, iving 65, tail 46, tarsus 17. 
Figured, Collected on the Darling Downs, South Queensland. 
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