Judging from the extreme rarity of this species in European collections, its true locality can scarcely as yet have been visited by naturalists. I observed several specimens in the Museum at Sydney; these, as well as those I possess, were obtained at Moreton Bay; the productions of which part of Australia are less known than might have been expected, considering how long it has been colonized. I had not the good fortune to meet with this bird in a state of nature, but I have been informed that it frequents reed-beds on the banks of rivers and lagoons, and that it much resembles the Bearded Tit (_Calamophila biarmicus_) of Europe, in the alertness with which it passes up and down the upright stems of the reeds, from the lower part to the very top, a habit for which the lengthened and curved form of its claws seems well adapted. The sexes appear to differ but little in colouring; in some individuals, however, the cheeks and throat are black instead of brown, a character doubtless dependent on age or season. I have not as yet seen this bird from the northern or western coast. Crown of the head and back of the neck grey, the centre of each feather being brown; cheeks, throat and ear-coverts blackish brown in some specimens, each feather slightly tipped with pale buff; upper surface and wings reddish brown; upper tail-coverts orange; tail brown, margined with paler brown; across the chest a broad band of pale chestnut, bounded below by a line of black, which gradually widens towards the flanks, along which it is continued for some distance; the remainder of the feathers on this part white, with a spot of blackish brown at the extremity of each; abdomen white; thighs black; under tail-coverts white, with a spot of blackish brown at the extremity of each; bill black; feet brown. The figures are of the natural size. [Illustration: DONACOLA PECTORALIS: _Gould_ _J. Gould and H. C. Richter del^t._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._ ] DONACOLA PECTORALIS, _Gould_. White-breasted Finch. _Amadina pectoralis_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part VIII. p. 127. For two beautiful specimens of this entirely new Finch I am indebted to E. Dring, Esq., of the Beagle, who procured them on the north-west coast of Australia: no notes of their habits or economy having been forwarded with the specimens, I am unable to give any particulars respecting them. In structure and in the general disposition of its markings, the White-breasted Finch offers a considerable resemblance to the _Donacola castaneothorax_ of the eastern coast, and in all probability they are analogues of each other, in accordance with a law which appears very generally to prevail among the birds of Australia; each great division of this vast country having its own peculiar species.