SEED FIXCHES. 



143 



f chlechtendal writes as follows : " They are quiet, 

 1 eaceful little birds. They despise mealworms, green 

 jood, and fruit,* sustain themselves solely on all kinds 

 of seeds, and live entirely without song or sound. A 

 male, though weakened with illness, bit me in a very 

 perceptible manner with his short, stout, sharply- 

 pointed beak, when I was obliged to handle it to 

 transfer it to another cage." It has not yet been bred, 

 and take it all round it is of very Mttle interest. 



Mr. E. W. Harper offered me a specimen of this rare 

 Grosbeak in November, 1907, and I naturally accepted 

 it with pleasure ; it came to hand at 9 p.m. on the 28th. 



THICK-BILLED SEED-FINCH (Oryzoborus crassirostris). 



Black, tips of flight-feathers browner ; base of 

 primaries white, forming a conspicuous speculum; under 

 wing-coverts white, black at edge of wing ; a blackish 

 r.pot at base of primaries ; axillaries white, excepting a 

 few close to the body. Female brown slightly washed 

 with olive ; under surface deep ochreous, paler on the 

 throat, sides washed with ashy-olive ; under wing- 

 coverts buffy-white, yellow at edge of wing. Habitat, 

 Amazonia, Guiana, Venezuela, and Colombia. (Sharpe.) 



Mr. Salmon, writing of this bird as observed by 

 him in Antioquia, observes: "Not a common bird 

 here. I have seen but one nest, which was built in 

 a low bush in a wild, swampy place. It was constructed 

 of the stems of coarse grass, lined with a finer kind, and 

 contained two eggs mottled over with light brown with 

 a few irregular blots and dashes of a darker colour. 

 The female was- sitting, and the male perched on a 

 bush at a short distance." 



Messrs. Sclater and Salvin describe these eggs as 

 " greyish-brown, indistinctly blotched with lilac-grey, 

 and strongly marked with dark red-brown marks ; axis 

 .93, diam. .6." 



A fair number of examples of this species also has 

 been exhibited in the London Zoological Gardens. Mr. 

 Meade Waldo says that this bird has a reputation as a 

 rongster ; two that he had sang a, great deal, a low in- 

 ward song. 



JACARINT FIXCH (Volatinia jacarini). 



Silky blue-black ; upper scapulars white at base ; 

 wings brownish edged with blue-black ; under wing- 

 coverts and axillaries white, the outer greater coverts, 

 towards base of primaries, blue-black ; nights below 

 blackish, white near base of inner web ; beak black, 

 lower mandible greyer ; feet dark brown ; irides dark 

 brown. Female above earth-brown, slightly ashy on 

 rump; wings blackish-brown with paler rufous-brown 

 edges, excepting the primaries which have ashy edges ; 

 upper tail-coverts dark reddish-brown ; tail dark brown 

 with paler margins, especially to the outermost feather 

 which is tipped with white ; crown of head somewhat 

 ashy ; lores and feathers round eye ashy- whitish ; ear- 

 coverts brown, cheeks paler ; throat dull white with 

 dusky mottling ; breast, sides, flanks, and thighs pale 

 sandy brownish streaked with blackish ; abdomen 

 whitish ; under wing-coverts and axillaries buffish- 

 white, edge of wing with dark mottling ; flights below 

 dusky, with hoary inner edge ; beak brownish -horn ; 

 feet horn-colour ; irides dark brown. Habitat, Central 

 and S. America to Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia. 



Burmeister (" Syst. Ueb.," III., ,p. 235) tells us that 

 " in the garden of Mr. Lallement at the foot of the 

 Corcovado (Laranjeras) a pair of this species lived and 

 nested. The nest was situated in a coffee shrub about 

 eight inches above the ground, and consisted of chiefly 

 dry air-roots of the very same plant, which were merely 



* Mr. Harper, however, writes that " Oryzobnrvs torridus and 

 O. cragsirostrig both eat lettuce, and the latter eats nualworms, at 

 least that is my suspicion." 



loosely twisted together ; at Christmas-time it contained 

 two incubated eggs of a very pale greenish colour, upon 

 which paler and darker grey-brownish pointed spots of 

 moderate size were unevenly -scattered, while at the 

 blunt extremity some black spots were visible ; they 

 are not quite so large as eggs of the Linnet (Fr. can- 

 nabina) and somewhat narrower. I have heard as little 

 song from the bird as Prince zu Wied ; but people are 

 fond of keeping it in cages and feeding it on canary- 

 seed, upon which it often lives for a long time. Like 

 the Buntings, the species seeks its food on the ground, 

 and is known to nearly everyone in Brazil by the name 

 of Jacarini. 



(< Mr. T. K. Salmon (P. Z. S., 1879, p. 507) says : 

 " This nest is carefully concealed very close to or upon 

 the ground amongst grass or herbage in waste places. 

 It is slightly constructed of dry grass stems, lined with 

 hair, or sometimes with the stems of a small flowering 

 plant. 



" The eggs are two in number, pale bluish-white, 

 spotted with red-brown." Messrs. Sclater and Salvin 

 say that the spots are chiefly in a zone round the 

 larger end; axis .7, diam. .55. Russ says : "I have 

 a pair in my bird-room which I received from Mr. 

 Moller about two years ago. They live in a bush quiet 

 and concealed ; yet at the warm season of the year the 

 male comes out regularly late in the evening into the 

 ventilating window and unwearedly utters his song. 

 The latter is indeed no song, but only an extraordinary 

 chirping with a shrill resounding terminal note. One 

 first hears the industrious songster when it is quite 

 dark. In all this time the two birds have never once 

 attempted to nest, and neither in spring nor at any 

 other time have they ever taken notice of one another. 

 There is also a pair in the possession of Dr. Franken, of 

 Baden-Baden, and Count Roedern, of Breslau. In 

 the Zoological Gardens of London the species has been 

 represented since the year 1858, and undoubtedly in 

 the course of time it has been imported now and again ; 

 thus I saw a male in the Berlin Aquarium in its early 

 days, soon after it was opened ; at that time nobody 

 there knew what it was. It is to be hoped that sooner 

 or later this bird will be bred." (" Fremdl. Stubenv," 

 I., p. 424.) 



Mr. R. A. Todd (The Avicultural Magazine, Ser. I., 

 Vol. IV., p. 6) writes: "I consider myself fortunate 

 in being the possessor of a pair of Jacarinis (Volatinia 

 jacarini}. The hen seems to be a very rare bird in 

 this country ; in colour she somewhat resembles the hen 

 Indigo Finch, though, of course, of a very different 

 build. These are rather shy birds, spending most of 

 their time among any bushes or cover there may be 

 in the aviary, but when moving about have very much 

 the nervous habit of the Waxbills; their tails seem 

 never at rest. My birds have never nested, and from 

 their nervous disposition I should doubt their ever 

 bringing off a brood. . . . They are certainly fond 

 of insects, and always ready for a mealworm or earwig ; 

 as regards seed, they seem to prefer canary and Indian 

 millet, and delight in duckweed." 



We now come to the Spermophilce, little Grosbeaks, 

 which somewhat remind one of the Mannikins ; they are 

 charming songsters, and many of them build the most 

 wonderful lace-like nests of marvellous strength ; their 

 food in captivity is very simple, consisting of millet in 

 two forms, canary, and grasses in the ear when obtain- 

 able.* 



* In Vol. VI. of " Bird Notes " facing p. 61. is an excellent coloured 

 plate of Spermophilce, figuring one of the commoner and three of the 

 rarer species ; all of which, through the kindness of Mr. E. W. 

 Harper, I have had the pleasure of keeping. 



