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ESTRELDA TEMPORALIS.

Red-eyebrowed Finch.

Fringilla temporalis, Lath. Ind. Orn., Supp., p. xlviii—Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 258.—Shaw,
Gen. Zool., vol. ix. p. 533.

Temporal Finch, Lath. Gen. Syn., Supp., vol. ii. p. 211; and Gen. Hist., vol. vi. p. 115.—Lewin, Birds of New
OME pl: 12:
Le Sénégah quinticolor, Vieill. Ois. Chant., p. 38, pl. 15.

Fringilla quinticolor, Vieill. 2nde Edit. du Nouv. Dict. d’Hist. Nat., tom. xii. p. 183.—Ib. Ency. Méth., Part III.
Deo

Goo-lung-ag-ga, Aborigines of New South Wales.

Red- Bill of the Colonists.

 

Tuts species of Finch is very generally spread over the gardens and all such open pasture lands of New
South Wales and South Australia as abound in grasses and small plants, upon the seeds of which it chiefly
subsists. It is particularly abundant in the neighbourhood of Sydney ; even in the Botanic Garden numbers
may always be seen flitting from border to border. It is easily domesticated, and is of a lively disposition
in captivity, even old birds becoming perfectly reconciled after a few days. In the autumn it is gregarious,
and Mr. Caley states it often assembles in such large flocks, that he has killed above forty at a shot; in the
spring they are mostly seen in pairs, and then build their large and conspicuous nest, which is formed of
dead grass, lined with thistle down, in any low bush adapted for a site, but in none more frequently than in
the beautiful plant figured in the accompanying Plate (Leptospermum squarrosum), which was made by Mrs.
Gould during our stay in Sydney; and I feel assured it will be acknowledged, that im delineations of
flowers as well as of birds her pencil was directed by a hand at once masterly and truthful.

The eggs are five or six in number, of a beautiful fleshy white, seven lines long by five and a half lines
broad.

Crown of the head bluish grey; upper surface, wings and tail olive-brown ; under surface white; patch
over the eye and rump crimson ; irides brownish red ; eyelash narrow, naked and black ; ou fine blood-
red, with the ridge of the upper and the lower part of the under mandible black ; legs yellowish white.

The Plate represents the two sexes of the natural size.

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