_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del^t._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._
]
ESTRELDA TEMPORALIS.
Red-eyebrowed Finch.
_Fringilla temporalis_, Lath. Ind. Orn., Supp., p. xlviii.—Vig. &
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 Holl., pl. 12.
_Le Sénégali 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. p. 991.
_Goo-lung-ag-ga_, Aborigines of New South Wales.
_Red-Bill_ of the Colonists.
This 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 in
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; bill 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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