us 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



median and greater wing-coverts paler at tips; rest of 

 wing and tail-feathers dusky brown, with olive-brown 

 margins; lores and feathers round eye bright buff: ear- 

 coverts paler olive-brown than rest of head; cheeks. 

 throat, and. fore-neck pale buff ; centre of breast and 

 abdomen whiter ; sides, flanks, thighs, and under tail- 

 coverts bright buff ; under wing-coverts and axillaries 

 slightly more olivaceous; flights a little paler than dn 

 male, 'but similar. Hab.. Upper Amazons, Guiana, 

 Venezuela, and Colombia. 



I have found no account of the wild life of this 

 specifs. In 1906 four examples were presented to the 

 London Zoological 'Society by /Mr. E. W. Harper and 

 two by C'apt. Albert Pain. In November, 1907, Mr. 

 Harper sent me a specimen as a present. Mr. 

 Page has also had a specimen. The song is 

 low-pitched, commencing with a trill, pr-r-r-r-if-fif. 

 and finishing with a chciT. cJircr, chit; it sounds like 

 ?.. crowd of Sparrows quarrelling in the distance. 



LINED FINCH (SpermophUa 



Upper surface glossy greenish-black, a broad longi- 

 tudinal stripe on the front of the head, one on 

 cheek, a 'spot on the inner primaries forming a small 

 oblong patch when the wings are closed, another on the 

 secondaries concealed by the coverts, the rump and 

 under surface more or less white, beak bbck. feet leaden 

 grey, iris brown. The female is greyish-olive, the upp><r 

 darter than the under surface. Hab., Brazil, Guiana, 

 and Venezuela. Inhabits the outskirts of woods, 

 especially near settlements, according to Burmei 

 and that is all the information I have come across re- 

 specting the wild life. 



This Spen/io phila appears not to : be very freely 

 imported, and I have never myself seen it at any 

 dealer's. A male was given to me some years a^o which 

 gang much in the style of the White-throated Finch, but 

 unhappily it did not live long, and died in poor 

 plumage, so that the skin was not worth preserving. 



Weaving Finches (Plwnipiirin><). 



I proposed this divison of the FrimjiUiiJti for the genus 

 Pf/n n i para, on account of its habit of constructing a 

 globular nest with front entrance, after the manner of 

 the Ploceid Finches ; it also resemble? many of the 

 latter in its insignificant little song and its sociable 

 habits. (See The Aricultural Magazine, x.s., Vol. IV., 

 pp. 153-4.) The genus Miiopi/rrJia will also have to be 

 referred to this stub-family. 



BLACK SEED-FINCH (Mdnpyrrlia nigra). 



Glossy black ; a narrow white stripe down the wing, 

 consisting of the bastard wing, the base of the primary- 

 coverts and the edge of the inner primaries; axillaries 

 and under wing-coverts also white ; quills below white 

 along base of inner web. Female of a deader browner 

 black; otherwise similar in plumage. Hab., Cuba, 

 Gundlach states that this bird is common in Cuba, living 

 in pairs during the breeding season, but afterwards in 

 family parties in woods and bushes on their outskirts. 

 " Its food consists of various seeds and berries, perhaps 

 also occasionally of insects. In the period between April 

 and July tho bird builds a, more or less globular nest 

 with side entrance of chy plants and leaves, hair, 

 bristles, little feathers and rootlets, among creepers, on 

 tie s. or between the many forks of a branch. The 

 clutch consists of three or ioiir eggs. Its delicate song 

 is admired by the inhabitants, therefore they catch il 

 freely and keep it in cages where they feed upon canarv- 

 fieed and coarse maize meal. I have also seen an albino 



which was not black but coloured greyish white." 



lluss, Fremdl. Stubenv., I., p. 559.) 

 Russ says that up to 1877 this bird was very rarely 

 obtainable from tlie dealers ; in the course of years he 

 only saw one male in the Berlin Aquarium, and received 

 another from the dealer Gudera of Leipzic. Then Mr. 

 Wiener sent him one for identification, and about the 

 .-a me time Miss Hagenbeck of Hamburg received a good 

 number. The London Zoological Society first received it 

 in 1868. It appears to be peaceable and long-lived. 



CUBAN FINCH (Phonlpara canora}.* 



The male above is yellowish-green; the base of fore- 

 head, sides of face, chin, and throat black, bounded 

 behind by a broad crescentic yellow belt, which extends 

 to above the eye. This tis followed by a border of 

 black on the front of the breast; the wing and tail 

 feathers dusky, edged with yellowish or green ; under 

 parts slaty-grey, the under tail-coverte tipped with 



CUBAN FINCHES. 



yellowish white. Beak black ; feet light brownislh-grey ; 

 i rides brown. 



The female has the face and thro-at chestnut instead 

 of black, and has the crown .of the head greyish brown ; 

 otherwise it is not unlike the male. Hab., Cuba. 



The species of the genus Plion'i fiara build 

 nests with entrance tube directed downwards from a 

 hole in the front, constructed of dry grasses with 

 a finer lining often of the same material. These! 

 nests, therefore, in everj resiped n'snnble those 01 

 true Weaving Finches (Ploceidce) ; they also- somei 

 lay pure white and unmarked eggs, though at other 

 times the eggs are tinted with bluish-green and specked 

 towards the larger end. with reddish*- or brown. I hav 

 no doubt that they arc more nearly related to the 

 World Weaving Finches than to any of the true Fit; 

 (FrincjiUnhn. inasmuch as the supposed absence of the 

 tiny tenth quill whidh used to be regarded as the must 

 important distinguishing feature between the two 

 families, is a. character which at once breaks down upon 

 examination. 



The Cuban Finch makes a most attractive addition 



* Riiis pointi out the relationship of I'honipara to the Waxbills; 

 probably he was thinking especially of Coccopygia : to my mind it 

 is much more like the Grassflnches. 





