Hawkins' shop in Bear Street, Leicester Square, wlio showed me the bodies of
some birds which liad died soon after their arrival from Antwerp. Among these
was the body of a young male Painted Pinch. Dr. Russ received one live
specimen from Hamburg * * * and heard of another which arrived at Trieste.
It is thus abundantly clear that the Painted Finch does arrive sometimes."
"Should this magnificent bird ever come into the hands of an amateur, let
him give millet in the ear, flowering grass, and a few mealworms."
Dr. Russ includes this species among the Astrilds ; but says that its mode of
life is similar to that of the Diamoud Finch. He mentions having received a dead
female from Mr. Wiener, in 1874, and saj's that he bought one four years
previously in London ; he proceeds:—
" Up to that time onty one head had come to hand, brought with him by
Mr. B3'noe, from the North-west coast of x\ustralia, yet without information as to
its life when at liberty, and as the explorer Gould was robbed of this together
with other rare birds, this species was only known by the illustration which Mrs.
Gould painted. Thanks to the extension of the fancy and of the Bird-trade,
several have since reached us alive; two were given by me to the Zoological
Museum in Berlin. Mr. Preyer in Trieste, possessed one in 1875, and Miss
Hagenbeck sent me a Painted Astrild, in 1877."
In his "Fremdländischen Stubenvögel" Dr. Russ gives no additional
information respecting this species.
Illustrations from skins in the Natural History Museum.
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