VARIETY.--The top of the head, the upper part of the body, and the breast are olive; the back of the neck, even to the throat, is ash-coloured; the belly yellow, but between the legs white. The wings are black, bordered with orange; the tail feathers dark green, but they are bordered with yellow, and are black up the middle. OBSERVATIONS.--This bird has been sold as the female of the preceding, and placed in the same cage. It lived very sociably; but I should suspect it rather of being the female of that under notice. It is a native of the Cape of Good Hope. THE GOWRY BIRD. Loxia punctularia, LINNÆUS; Le Grosbec tacheté de Java, BUFFON; Der getüpfelte Kernbeisser, BECHSTEIN. This bird is the size of a linnet, about four inches and a quarter in length. The beak and feet black; the whole of the upper part of the body, and the lower, as far as the breast, chestnut brown; the cheeks marked with a reddish purple tinge; the belly and sides white, but all the feathers bordered with black in the form of a heart. The female has no red tinge on the cheeks, the beak and feet are deep brown; the sides white, tinged with deep brown: the back reddish brown. OBSERVATIONS.--This species, which I have seen in the collection of His Royal Highness the Duke of Saxe Meiningen, comes from Java; it is kept in a cage and fed on canary seed. Its call is "_deguay_," its feeble song somewhat resembles the siskin's. THE BANDED FINCH. Loxia fasciata, LINNÆUS; La Collerette BUFFON; Der gebänderte Kernbeisser, BECHSTEIN. This bird is the size of the preceding, about four inches and a half in length. The beak is bluish grey. The feet short and flesh-coloured; the upper part of the body dark reddish ash grey, each feather having two black transverse bands, only one of which is visible; the cheeks and lower mandible are surrounded by a band of dark reddish purple. The female has not this collar, and its plumage is paler; the under part of its body is red brown, each feather edged with a deeper shade. VARIETIES.--The one I have actually before me, and which I received from Mr. Thiem, bird-dealer at Waltershausen, is a fine male, whose plumage is as follows:-- The head is dull orange, with black stripes very near together; the upper part of the neck, the back and rump, are the same shade of orange, but each feather is intersected by a semicircular black line, and terminated by a spot of red brown; the scapular wing coverts and last pen-feathers are dark grey, with transverse angular black bands, and bordered at the tips with red brown. 2. This variety is thus described in Latham's Synopsis of Birds. The top of the head, upper part of the neck, and lesser wing coverts, light brown, with semicircular black lines; the cheeks plain brown, but edged at the lower part with bright crimson, below which is a black line; the breast and belly light brown, occasionally marked with semicircular lines; the pen-feathers and tail are brown.