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DIAMOND SPARRuVv,,
fSte^anopAorcz ^izliajaj
THE DIAMOND SPARROW.
Stcganoplenra guttata, SHAW.
r ATHAM called this beautiful bird the " White-headed Finch " and gave it the
name of Fringilla levcoccpkala, but Dr. Sharpe has rejected the latter on
account of the inaccuracy of the description which accompanies it. It inhabits South
Australia to New South Wales, and north to the Wide Bay District. Miss Marie
Fraser informed me that in Queensland it was extremely common, flying out of
the bushes in small companies as one approached; nevertheless, since the importation
of Gouldian Finches commenced it seems to have been but rarely imported,
a standing order for a pair having had no result for three years in succession.
The general colouring above is mouse-brown, greyer on the head ; a black
streak from the base of the upper mandible to the eye ; the lower back and upper
tail-coverts fiery carmine-red ; the tail intense black ; under parts snow-white, with
a broad belt of jet black across the chest ; sides of body black, each feather
marked externally with a snow-white semicircular spot; the entire length
inches. Beak crimson, legs grejdsh-brown ; iris red.
The hen differs, as Mr. Abrahams has pointed out, in its slightly narrower
liead and in having the base of the upper mandible narrowlj' rose-pink. (In
order to distinguish them readil}- the birds must be taken up and their heads
held side by side, when there is no difficulty in discriminating between them).
I had a pair of this species in about 1889 which built in a German Canary
Cage in my small Finch Aviar}- and laid several eggs : there were however such
constant disputes between the male and female, that thej' came to nothing; the
hen would not let the cock enter the nest in the day time (indeed his repeated
efforts to do so e^'entuall3' resulted in her killing him), but if he did not come
in directly that she began to call him in the evening, she would leave her eggs
and chase him about the aviar}-.
The call-note of these birds is particularly doleful, like that of the Parson
Finch ; but the love-dance of the cock bird is one of the most absurd and at the