418 



BULLETIlSr 133, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



• Type specimen. 



At General lioca these finches Avere common from November 23 

 fo December 3, Avhere they found conditions suitable for their habita- 

 tion. They Avere most abundant in the brush-grown flats toward the 

 Rio Negro, and seemed on the whole restricted in their distribution by 

 the availability of water, as toward the gravel hills that bordered 

 the flood plain of the stream they were found only where irrigation 

 ditches furnished the means to satisfy thirst. 



As a whole, Brachyspiza is adaptable and will increase in abun- 

 dance as extended irrigation projects offer it new range in regions 

 at present desolate and arid. 



The period of my visit to Roca corresponded with the height of 

 the breeding season, and males were in full song, while their mates 

 were busy with their nests or with the quieter duties of incubation. 

 Occasionally males rose a few meters in the air to give a flight song, 

 louder and clearer than their ordinary efforts, and then pitched 

 doAvn to cover. On November 24 I flushed a female from a nest 

 placed under a tussock of grass in a little opening in the brush. The 

 nest, a slight cup made of grass sunk in the sandy soil until it was 

 level with the surface, contained three fresh eggs. The eggs are 

 similar in color to those described under B. c. canicapilla; one has 

 bold, somewhat restricted markings, the other two a more suffused 

 Wash that in one nearly conceals the ground color. Measurements 

 of this set are appended: 19.4 by 14.2, 18.9 by 14.3, 18.6 by 14.1 mm. 

 A pair that nested in the patio at my hotel brought out two young 

 on November 25. Cats killed one of the young birds in a short time 

 and the other was placed in a cage hung on a post where it Avas safe. 

 The parents continued to attend the wants of their offspring and 

 scolded sharply whenever possible enemies appeared. The male 

 became so reconciled to the ncAv arrangement that frequently he 

 sang his pleasant song from a perch on the cage. Like many other 

 birds of this region I found Brachyspiza^ elscAvhere tame and con- 

 fiding, unusually Avild. 



At Tunuyan, Mendoza, from March 22 to 29, 1921, these birds Avere 

 found in scattered flocks spread through extensive weed patches. A 

 part of them seemed to be migrants, or so it appeared from their 



