BLACK-THROATED FINCH. 
footnote (Vol. XIII., p. 375) : “ Dr. E. P. Ramsay mentions {Tab. List 
Austr. B., p. 10) a species from the Gulf of Carpentaria as Poephila 
atropygialis Diggles {QueenM. Phil. Soc., p. 876). I have not been able to 
find the quotation and caimot fix the species.” 
Hartert then described a bird from Cape York as a new species: 
“ Poephila nigrotecta. Similar to P. cincta, from which it differs in bemg con¬ 
siderably smaller, and in having the upper tail-coverts black like the rump. 
Wing 59-60 mm. (about 63 in P. cincta).'^ 
Austrahan ornithologists at once recognised that this was probably the 
same form which Diggles described, while North described an intermediate 
between the black- and wlute-rumped forms as Poephila neglecta, the exact 
locality being unknown, but probably from New South Wales. 
When I drcAV up my “ Reference List ” m 1912 I proposed the new 
genus Alisteranus for this species, wth the tail square, none of the feathers 
elongated, and allowed four subspecies. 
Alisteranus cinctus ductus (Gould). 
New South Wales. 
As a synonym I placed Poephila neglecta North. 
Alisteranus cinctus vinotinchis Mathews. 
“Differs from A. cinctus cinctus in its paler coloration above and below, its 
silvery head, and the breast pale rosy-brown. Inkerman, Queensland.” 
Queensland (Inkerman). 
Alisteramis cinctus atropygialis (Castehiau and Ramsay). 
Queensland (Norman River). 
Alisteranus cinctus niyrotectits (Hartert), 
North Queensland (Cape York). 
I allowed Hartert’s form as Cape York birds are generally different from 
Normanton ones, wliich were not available at that time. In my 1913 “List ” 
the same four forms were admitted, but North’s P. neglecta was ranked as a 
probable synonym of Diggles’ form. Since then I have received Normanton 
birds and they are easily separable from the Cape York form, and I have added 
Alisteramis cinctus maclennani. 
“ Differs from A. c. atropygialis (Diggles) in its darker coloration above and 
below, and measurements probably larger. Wing 61 mm.: typical birds are 
58 mm. Watson River, North Queensland.” 
The other figured bird on the plate is cinctus, a female collected in New 
South Wales, it differs from atropygialis in having the upper tail-coverts white, 
not black; some of the black feathers on the rump are tipped Avith white. 
It is also lighter on the under-surface. 
The male is similar to the female. 
VOL. xn. 
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