LONG-TAILED FINCH. 
of their various expeditions ; among others I may particularly allude to Mr. 
Charles Darwhi, Captain Wickham, Captain Stokes, Mr. Dring, etc. Since 
the arrival of Bynoe’s birds, I have also received specimens from Port Essington, 
which, lilve their analogue the Poephila cincta of the eastern coast, inhabit the 
open plains bordering streams, and feed on the seeds of various grasses and 
other plants.” 
Mr. J. P. Rogers wrote me from North-west Australia : “ From Nov. 9th 
to Dec. 15th, 1908, many nests were fomid being built, but all were deserted 
unfinished, though I saw the birds worldng at them. Oir 15th Dec. these 
birds were feeding on flyhig ants; they were hopping about on the groimd, 
and when an ant passed overhead a bird would shoot straight up at it; they 
always took their prey from below, seizing it ^vith the bill, then returned to 
the ground. The birds were very quiet and I was within three or four yards 
of several of them. The ants flew about twenty feet from the ground and 
were in swarms. I shot tw'o birds and dissected them and found the crop and 
stomach full of the fat bodies of the ants. I could not detect any legs or wings ; 
they seem to rip the ant off at the waist and only swallow the fat end. I saw 
several flocks at Avork on the ants and aU behaved in the same maimer. On 
May 16tb, 1909, they were nmnerous at Wild Dog Creek, 170 miles south of 
Myndham, and on July 1st at Mary River, Kimberley Gold Fields, 290 miles 
south, they were very rare. They are much more numerous near the coast 
than inland. At Mungi I saAv very few of these birds and none at all on my 
return journey until I reached Jegurra Creek, 18 miles S. of the Fitzroy.” 
Hill has wTitten from North-western Austraha : “A common resident 
near Napier Broome Bay. The nests are generally built in the tops of pandanus 
palms, or in small trees at from 4 feet 6 inches to 20 feet from the groimd, but 
it is not xmusual to find them in spinifex grass, from 12 to 18 inches from the 
gromid. The nests vary somewhat according to the site chosen. Those in the 
grass and pandanus are generally built of grass and fined with feathers. Char¬ 
coal was fomid amongst the feathers m three nests taken from spinifex. I 
noticed that nests built in trees were generally constructed of grass, sma ll 
herbaceous plants, and pieces of wire-fike creeper, and were more often fined 
with grass than ivith feathers. One nest was fined with about 18 inches of 
snakeskin. The nesting season commenced after the rainy season, eggs being 
taken from 23rd April to 21st dime. From three to eight eggs are laid in a 
nest.” 
Barnard iiTote from Northern Territory: “ Seen in all classes of country 
on the McArthur. Their bulky grass nests were placed in bushes and trees 
but never on the ground. During the breeding-season the tail-feathers of 
this bird are much longer than at other seasons.” 
235 
