T/ENIOPYGIA. 
165 
Genus TiENIOPYGIA, Reiclicnbacli. 
T^ENIOPYGIA CAST AN OTIS, Gould. 
Chestnut-eared Finch. 
Gould, JTandbk. lids. A ust., Vol. i., sp. 258, p. 419. 
The Chestnut-eared Finch is found breeding in companies in 
the neighbourhood of the Lachlan and the Darling Rivers, during 
September and the two following months. It constructs a flask¬ 
shaped nest of dried grass stems ifec., and is placed in the branches 
of a low tree or thick bush. Eggs five or six in number for a 
sitting, in colour faint bluish-white ; a set now before me taken 
by Mr. James Ramsay at Tyndarie, in October 1879, has one 
specimen (A) with a distinct and well defined band of blue round 
the centre of the egg ; this is the only occasion that I have ever 
seen any variation from the typical egg of this species. Length 
(A) 0-6 x 0-43 inch ; (B) 0-61 x 0-45 inch ; (C) 0-56 x 0*42 inch ; 
(D) 0-G2 x 0-43 inch ; (E) 060 x 0-46 inch ; (F) OG5 x 045 inch. 
Sets of these eggs in Mr. K. H. Bennett’s and my own collection 
give the same average measurements. 
This bird together with Poephila cincta and P. aculicauda, are 
breeding readily in confinement in Sydney at all times of the year. 
In Dr. Ramsay’s aviary at the Museum, a brood of T. castanotis 
and P. aculicauda left the nest on June 3rd, 1887 : this was the 
third brood of T. caslauotixivom the same pairof birds since January. 
Ilah. Derby, N. W. Australia, Port Darwin and Port Essington, 
Gulf of Carpentaria, Dawson River, New South Wales, Interior, 
Victoria and South Australia, West and South-West Australia. 
(Ramsay.) 
Genus DONACICOLA, Gould. 
DONACICOLA CASTANEOTHORAX, Gould. 
Chestnut-breasted Finch. 
Gould, Uandbk. lids. Aust., Yol. i.. sp. 2G5, p. 426. 
“ This species is widely distributed over the whole of the 
northern parts of New South Wales and Queensland. It breeds 
