The figures are of the natural size.

POËPHILA MIRABILIS: Humb: et Jacq:
J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith. Hullmandel & Walton Imp.

POËPHILA MIRABILIS, Homb. et Jacq.
Beautiful Grass Finch.

Poëphila mirabilis, Homb. et Jacq. Voy. au Pole Sud.—O. des Murs, Icon. Orn., pl. 3. fig. 1.

Fine examples of this, one of the most lovely of the Finches yet discovered, are contained in the gallery of the Museum of Natural History of Paris; they were procured by Messrs. Hombron and Jacquinot in the neighbourhood of Raffles’ Bay, on the north coast of Australia, where it is so rare, that those gentlemen only met with three examples, and were unable to make themselves acquainted with its actions and manners. In the works above-quoted my Poëphila Gouldiæ is figured as the female of the present bird, but this I believe to be a mistake, the specimen from which my description and figure were taken being to all appearance an adult male; and as an evidence that such may be the case, I may mention that no female of the group has yet been discovered so gorgeously arrayed; the females of all the Poëphilæ I have seen resemble their respective males in the colouring of their plumage, but have all the hues much less brilliant; it is not probable therefore that a bird so gaily coloured as the P. Gouldiæ should be the female of the P. mirabilis; besides which, Mr. Gilbert procured an example of P. Gouldiæ during Dr. Leichardt’s Expedition from Moreton Bay to Port Essington, which dissection proved to be a female, and which although similarly, was much less highly coloured than the bird I have represented.

Crown of the head and cheeks of a beautiful carmine, bounded posteriorly by a narrow line of black; throat black; to this succeeds a band of pale blue, narrow on the throat and broad on the back of the neck; back and wings green, passing into yellow at the nape of the neck; breast crossed by a broad band of lilac, separated from the yellow of the abdomen by a narrow line of orange; rump and upper tail-coverts pale blue; quills brown; bill fleshy white, becoming redder at the tip; feet flesh-colour.

The figures represent a male in two positions of the natural size.

POËPHILA ACUTICAUDA: Gould.
J. Gould and H. C. Richter delt. C. Hullmandel Imp.