LITTLE GROSBEAKS. 



147 



at end with ashy ; lower eyelid with a tiny white spot ; 

 cheeks, sides of neok, and under parts white ; a black 

 collar and sides of breast; sides of body and flanks 

 ashy; thighs blackish; flights below blackish, ashy on 

 inner edges and towards 'base; feet fleshy -blackish. 

 Female above olive-brown, yellower on rump; wing 

 and tail -feathers with paler edges; lores and feathers 

 round eye whitish; ear-coverts pale and streaked with 

 whitish; under surface <ochraceo<us, 'browner on sides 

 and flanks; centre of breast and abdomen yellowish 

 white ; axillaries and under wing-coverts white, edged 

 with yellow; flights below dusky, ashy whitish along 

 inner edges. Hab., Guiana and Amazonia. 



Burmeister gives no information respecting the wild, 

 life, nor can I discover anything in other works. This 

 species also has been exhibited at the London Gardens. 



BLUISH FINCH (Spermophila ccerulescens). 



The Bluish Finch chiefly differs from the White- 

 throated Finch in its slightly inferior size and black 

 chin-patch, but it also wants the white spot on the 

 primaries. Female pale olive-brown ; wings and tail 

 darker ; below paler tinged with ochraceous ; middle 

 of body almost white. Hab., South Brazil, Patagonia, 

 Paraguay, Argentina, and Bolivia. 



Mr. Hudson ("Argentine Ornithology," Vol. I., p. 46) 

 observes that "these birds are always most abundant 

 in plantations, preferring peach trees, but do not 

 associate in flocks ; they are exceedingly swift and 

 active, overflowing with life and energy, their 

 impetuous notes and motions giving one the idea that 

 they are always in a state of violent excitement. The 

 male has a loud, startled chinp, also a song composed 

 of eight or ten notes, delivered with such vehemence 

 and rapidity that they run into each other and sound 

 more like a iscream than a song.* There is not a more 

 clever architect than this species; and while; many 

 Synallaxes are laboriously endeavouring to show how 

 stately a mansion of sticks a little bird can erect for 

 itself, the Screaming Finch has successfully solved the 

 problem of how to construct the most perfect nest for 

 lightness, strength, and symmetry with the fewest 

 materials. It is a small, cup-shaped structure, 

 suspended hammock-wise between two slender upright 

 branches, and to which it is securely attached by fine 

 hairs and webs. It is made of thin, pale-coloured, 

 fibrous roots, ingeniously woven, together reddish or 

 light-coloured horse-hair being sometimes substituted ; 

 and so little material is used that, standing under the 

 tree, a person can easily count tihe eggs through the 

 bottom of the nest. Its apparent frailness is, however, 

 its best protection from the prying eyes of birds and 

 mammals that prey on the eggs and young of small 

 birds ; for it is difficult to detect the slight structure, 

 through which the sunshine and rain pass so freely. So 

 light is the little basket-nest that it may be placed on 

 the open hand and blown away with the breath like a 

 straw ; yet so strong that a man can suspend his weight 

 from it without pulling it to pieces. The eggs/ are three 

 in number, white and spotted with black, sometimes 

 bluish-brown spots are mingled with the 'black.'* 



Formerly this bird was very rarely imported ; but of 

 late years it has come more frequently in consignments 

 from Argentina. In 1893 I imported three males from 

 La Plata; but they suffered from exposure in an all- 

 wire cage during the journey ; after tiheir arrival they 

 were much persecuted by my White -throated Finches. 

 Two died in their moult and the third did not live very 



* Mr. Hudson calls this bird "Screaming Finch." 



long. Not being good songsters they are not likely to 

 become very popular. 



GUTTURAL FINCH (Spermophila gutturalis). 



The male is olive-green above, with a black head ; 

 wings and tail greyish-brown, breast and abdomen 

 yellowish-white with a faint greenish cast, flanks 

 greyish; beak silver-girey, feet and iris greyish- 

 brown. The female is dull brownish-olive, paler and 

 more yellow below, the breast slightly ruddy, the wing 

 and tail-feathers blackish, with pale margins ; 'beak 

 horn-grey, feet brownish flesh coloured, iris brown. 

 Hab., Brazil, Guiana, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, 

 Venezuela, and Panama. 



According to T. K. Salmon (P. Z. S., 1879, p. 507) this 

 bird " nests in low bushes. The nest is built at a height 

 of four or five feet, of stems of dry grass rather loosely 

 put together, in which two eggs are laid." Messrs. 

 Sclater and Salvin describe the eggs as "pale greenish 

 white, marked with large iblotcb.es of several shades of 

 rich brown ; axis .7, diam. .5." 



Mr. W. A. Forbes {The Ibis, 1881, p. 336) says: 

 " This little Spermophila was very abundant in the 

 garden at Estaoicia, frequenting the reedy and marshy 

 parts, where it congregates in small flocks, feeding on 

 the seeds of the grasses, sedges, and other similar 

 plants. I also saw it abundant afterwards, at Quipapa, 

 as well as in the low bush-covered country round 

 Garanhuns, BO that it is by no means confined to the 

 seaboard or even to the neighbourhood of water. It is 

 often kept as a cage-bird." 



Dr. E. A. Goeldi, writing of birds observed up the 

 Oapim River (The Ibis, 1903, p. 481), says: "The small 

 Finches Spermophila gutturalis and S. hypoleuca 

 constantly sang on the higher branches of the trees 

 around the buildings." 



This bird is a good, thougih not frequent, singer. It 

 is long-lived and not specially quarrelsome. According 

 to Burmeister it frequents open 'pastures in order to feed 

 on grass-seeds. My second pair of this species died 

 during the cold days of June, 1898, but my first pair 

 lived much longer ; the male dying in January, 1901, 

 and the female in February, 1905, having been in my 

 possession since about 1895 or 1896. Judging by its 

 general resemblance to the Mannikins of the Old World, 

 one would suppose that Spermophila and Phonipara 

 might be the nearest Frinqillidce to the Finches of the 

 family Ploceidce and that the species of Munia were the 

 oldest types of that family ; if so, they must have given 

 off twoi lines of descent, the one: through the Grass- 

 finches and Waxbills, the other through the Weavers 

 and Whydahs! ; in the (last-mentioned it is strange how 

 the scratching habit of the Buntings of the Song-Sparrow 

 type reappears. 



OCELLATED, OR BLACK-HEADED LlNED FlNCH ( 



ocellata): 



Above glossy greenish-black ; rump crossed by a white 

 band ; wings and tail black, with greenish black edges ; 

 the inner primaries and inner secondaries white, at base 

 of inner web, forming a double speculum ; the inner 

 one, however, concealed <by the greater coverts ; an ill- 

 defined broken white streak in the middle of the fore- 

 head ; cheeks white, forming a broad stripe ; throat and 

 sides of neck gilossy black; fore-neck mottled with 

 white ; rest of under parts white ; the sides and flanks 

 slightly mottled with black ; thighs black externally ; 

 edge of wing below mottled witlh black ; flights blackish 

 edged with ashy, white at base ; beak black ; feet dull 

 black ; irides dark brown. Female above dull olive- 

 brown ; slightly paler on rump and upper tail-coverts ; 



