422 BULLETIN 133, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



POOSPIZA ORNATA (Landbock) 



PJirygilus ornatus Landbock, Journ. fiir Ornith., 1865, p. 405. (Between 

 the guard house at the Portillo Pass and Melocoton, Mendoza.) 



Near Victorica, Pampa, this handsome finch was common from 

 December 23 to 29, 1920; four specimens taken include a male and 

 two adult and one juvenile females. The species has been recorded 

 previously from Mendoza, Rioja, Tucuman, and Cordoba. The 

 female, in juvenal plumage, is dark mouse gray above with dull 

 avellaneous margins on the feathers, the margins somewhat brighter 

 on the rump; a faint superciliar}^ of dull cream buff; remiges and 

 wing coverts blackish mouse gray, margined with dull avellaneous; 

 rectrices blackish mouse gray, outer web and half of inner web of 

 outermost white; three succeeding pairs tipped on inner web with 

 Avhite; cheeks chaetura drab, faintly mottled with dull buff; below 

 whitish, washed with pinkish buff streaked everj^where with dark 

 mouse gray ; undertail coverts pinkish buff. 



These finches ranged among bushes or low trees in pasture lands, 

 where they fed quietly on the ground amid scattered bunch grass or 

 rested on small limbs sometimes at the summits of little trees. At 

 this season adults were accompanied by grown young. Males still 

 sang at intervals a low song, but one sharp and emphatic in its 

 inflection. Their tilting flight was accompanied by a prominent 

 display of white in the tail. They were quiet and undemonstrative 

 and uttered no call notes. 



POOSPIZA ASSIMILIS Cabanis 



Poospiza assimilis Cabanis, Mus. Hein., pt. 1, 1851, p. 137. (Southern 

 Brazil and Paraguay.) 



Fairly common at San Vicente, Uruguay, from January 28 to 30, 

 1921, when two males, a female, and a juvenile bird were taken; 

 seen at Lazcano, Uruguay, Februar}^ 7 and 8, along the Rio Cebol- 

 lati; and taken at Rio Negro, Uruguay, February 17 and 18 (two 

 adult males). The bird in juvenal plumage has breast, throat, sides 

 of head, and forepart of crown Avashed heavily with olive yellow. 

 The greater coverts are margined heavily with white, a marking 

 that may be present or absent in adults. Adult birds taken are in 

 Avorn plumage or are molting. 



Poospiza assimilis was found in dense thickets, where it moved 

 about in a slow and somewhat sluggish manner. It was decoyed out 

 into view readily, but after a few seconds dodged back out of sight. 

 Adult males sang, in spite of rain and wind, from perches among 

 leaves near the tops of bushes, uttering a shrill song, given earnestly 

 but with little carrying power. Their song may be Avritten inheef. 

 see a wheet wheet; the call note was a low clivnt. The young, with 



