134 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



parents may feed their young after they leave the 

 nest, for they cease to give them prepared food entirely 

 after they fly. and consequently (unless sufficient 

 insects can be provided for a fortnight or so from that 

 date) they must necessarily die of starvation. I lost 

 *ny own young Cardinals in 1895 from this cause. 



YELLOW-BILLED CARDINAL (Part/aria capitata). 



Above black, with intensely bright carmine head, the 

 black and red being ddvided by snow-white, and with 

 crescentic marks on the neck narrowing to a point upon 

 the nape ; the throat of adult birds is black, this colour 

 tapering downward^ to the chest ; the under parts are 

 snow-white, the bill and feet ochreous yellow. Fema.e 

 with head of a duller, more brack-coloured red; she is 

 -also a trifle larger than the male, and slightly greyer 

 on the mantle ; her beak is shorter and tapers more 

 regularly, the base being slightly wider and the point 

 more obtuse. 



Young birds are altogether duller in colouring, the 

 red of the head replaced by sandy buff, and the black 

 on the throat by brown ; they also have a good deal of 

 slate-colour on the culmen, tip, and tomium of the 

 beak and on the front of the tarsi. Habitat, Argentine 

 Republic and Paraguay northwards to Bolivia and 

 Mat to G rosso. 



Although this species is still somewhat rare in skin- 

 collections and was extremely rare in living collections 

 at the latter end of the last century, it appears to be 

 very abundant on the banks of the Rio Pilcomayo. Mr. 

 J. Graham Kerr, writing in The Ibis for 1892, p. 126, 

 says : " Equally or even rather more abundant than 

 1'. curiiUafa. Especially conspicuous among the bushes 

 upon the river's banks'." The same gentleman found 

 it common on the Gran Chaco in 1896 and 1897. 



This bird is said to occur in small flocks at Parana, 

 and is often seen upon the stones at the edge of the 

 river. In spite of its far more vivid colouring, its lack 

 of .a crest probably leads the native bird-catchers to 

 give preference to" the abundant red-crested species ; 

 nevertheless in 1903 <an Italian brought a moderate con- 

 signment of this species in all stages of plumage into the 

 London market, and I understand that a rather large 

 number arrived in 1907. 



In July. 1893. I imported a beautiful adult male of 

 this Cardinal. I found it lively, tolerably confiding, 

 cleanly, and as unmusical in its notes as its commoner 

 and wilder relatives. Unhappily, it was rather short- 

 lived. 



Of the consignment which reached London in 1903 I 

 purchased four examples in various stages of colour- 

 jrrowth, and by carefully noting day bv day the changes 

 which took place in the colouring of the plumage, of the 

 beak, and of the feet, I proved conclusively (I will not 

 say indisputably, for some men will dispute the truth 

 of anything which they have not themselves observed) 

 that the so-called Brown -throated Cardinal (P. crrri- 

 crtli*) was nothing more than an imperfectly matured 

 stage in the colouring of P. en pi fata. All my birds 

 became typical P. rrrviralis shortly before they 

 acquired their fullv adult plumage. The dark tinting 

 of the tarsi, which, I believe, is supposed to be most 

 important, is present in nearly all young birds, and in 

 some is the last juvenile character to disappear, but it 

 alwavs fades out in the end ; as a specific character it 

 is utterly valueless. 



RED-HEADED OR DOMINICAN CARDINAL 

 (Pnroaria larvrifa). 



Above pale slate-grey, the feathers of the nape and 

 mantle broadly edged with black, the former more or 



less white at base, in some cases white with black 

 borders ; wings and tail black, the primaries narrowly 

 edged externally with white, the secondaries with broad 

 external border which is continued round the ends ; tail- 

 leathers narrowly edged with ashy, brownish in the 

 f i. 1 male, the outer feathers with white terminal fringes ; 

 head all round, chin, throat and centre of fore-chest 

 crimson ; a black line bounding the back of the ear- 

 coverts ; remainder of under-surface M'hite, washed with 

 ashy on flanks; flights below blackish, ashy on inner 

 edges ; upper mandible dark brown ; lower mandible 

 yellow with brown tip ; feet blackish, slate-coloured ; 

 irides hazel. Female rather larger than the male, with 

 rather longer and more tapering beak, the culmen of 

 which therefore appears slightly less arched; the white 

 edges to the primaries seem to be a trifle narrower, but 

 this character may be variable. Hab., Brazil. 



Mr. W. A. Forbes (Tin- MiX 1881, p. 337) says: 

 " The Red-headed Cardinal I found common at 

 Parahyba, and again saw it in the neighbourhood of 

 ( lurunhuns, so that it occurs all over the district I 

 traversed. It is usually seen singly or in pairs in the 

 more or less cleared and open ground near cultivation. 

 Many dozens are brought into the market at Recife to 

 sell as cage-birds. 



" The Brazilians call it ' Gallo do campina.' " 



I have been unable to discover any published account 

 of the nidification of this species in a wild state, but 

 Dr. Russ bred it in an aviary, the pair building in a 

 birch-bush with twigs, strips of paper, moss and reed- 

 heads, lining the cup smoothly with soft grass-stalks, 

 pigs' bristles and worsted. The first clutch consisted 

 of three, and the second of four eggs, which Russ 

 describes as whitish-green, sprinkled with brownish; 

 incubation lasted fourteen days and the young left the 

 nest seventeen days later. The full adult colouring was 

 not attained until the spring of the third year. 



I have twice had pairs of this species. The first p:dr 

 carried materials into a basket and out again, but 

 never formed a proper nest, the eggs were dropped upon 

 the floor of the aviary and broken. Of the nesting of 

 the second pair in my bird-room I have published an 

 account in The Avicultural Magazine, N.S., Vol. II., 

 pp. 2t>7-269. The nest was built in April in a 

 shallow box screwed into the wall and forming a 

 support for a mass of brushwood ; why so cramped a 

 situation was chosen I could not understand ; two eggs 

 were laid and were partly incubated when both parents 

 unaccountably died ; the eggs were greenish white, 

 mottled, streaked and speckled, particularly at the 

 larger end with olivaceous-brownish (not pure 

 brownish) ; they were perfect ovals, otherwise they were 

 not unlike the egg of 8a.cin>/<i mont'n-nla as figured in 

 the British Museum " Catalogue of Eggs," Vol. IV., 

 PI. VII., fig. 12, only paler, more heavily spotted, and 

 the spots more olive in tint. 



In an outdoor aviary with plenty of cover there is 

 not the least doubt that this species*, could be easily 

 bred, provided that abundance of living insect-food could 

 be obtained with which the parents could feed their 

 young. Both my attempts were made in indoor 

 aviaries and therefore failed. 



Dr. Russ rightly states that this bird is less spiteful 

 than P. cucullata, but I fail to see that there ds any 

 appreciable difference between the songs of the two 

 species. It sounds to me' like " Ghitcherwitchjch.it- 

 cherwitcheritchi-chow-cheritcheree," and so on very 

 harsh, gritty, and ear-piercing. The calls, however, are 

 rather more musical. 



