PLUM-HEAD FINCH. 
Adnlt female. Feathei*s bordoiing the base of the culmen deep vinous-red; top of the 
head, neck, mantle, and lower back deep greyish-brown ; rump and upper tail- 
coverts similar in colour to the back, but each feather vrith a white spot at the 
extremity; wing-coverts and imier secondaries greyish-brown, spotted and 
marked with wliile; primaries brownish-ash, externally margined with olive; 
central tail-feathers uniform black, the outermost pans tipped with white feathers 
over the eye; throat less barred than the xmder-parts ; cheeks, sides of the neck, 
chest and sides of the body alternately barred with regular lines of deep olive- 
brown and wliite; middle of the belly, abdomen and under tail-coverts white ; 
under-surface of wings greyish-ash, slightly margined on the inner web with buff. 
Total length 108 mm. ; culmen 9, wing 66, tail 42, tarsus 15. Figured. Collected 
at Narrabri, New South Wales, in July, 1893. 
Eggs. Five to seven eggs fonn the clutch. A clutch of seven eggs taken on the Dawson 
River, Queensland, on the 10th of March, 1909, is of a pure wliite. Stout or sw'ollen 
ovals in shape. Surface of shell fine, with a slight trace of gloss. 15-16 by 11 mm. 
Nest. The usual bottle-shaped structure, built of dried grasses, and lined with feathers. 
Breeding-months. September to January. 
Again*, this distinct species was described by Goidd before he went to Australia, 
and afterwards he v\Tote: “ I found the Plum-coloured Finch tolerably 
abundant on the Liverpool Plains and on the banks of the Namoi, and Gilbert 
also mentions his having observed it on the low ranges to the northward of 
Moreton Bay. In its habits, actions and economy no remarkable differences 
were observed from those uf the other species of the genus. It is usually seen 
in pairs or associated in small companies, feeding either on or near the ground, 
the seeds of grasses and other annuals forming its chief supply of food.’’ 
Mr. Thos. P. Austin has written me from Cobbora, New South Wales: 
“ A very rare species in this district, I have not seen more than a dozen birds, 
just an odd pair turning up any year in the spring. A pair one year took up 
their abode about my house and I often saw them in the garden. They used 
to come on to a lawn only a few steps off my verandah, and pick up feathers 
blown there from a White Cockatoo wliich is kept in a large cage on the verandah. 
They had their nest in long grass on the side of a dam just outside my orchard 
where they reared their yormg. I have only found three nests containing 
eggs and the clutches were four, five and six, and all fomid during the month 
of November. All the nests I have seen were within three feet of the ground, 
placed in thistles or grass.” 
This well-known Finch seems to have created the least interest of all the 
group, as the above notes cover all I have traced of interest. 
The two forms only have been named: 
Aidemosyne modesta modesta (Gould). 
New South Wales. 
Aidemosyne modesta nogoa (Mathews), 
Queensland. 
VOL. xn. 
217 
