28 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



THE SULPHUR-COLOURED SEED-EATER. 



Serinus Sulphuratus, LINN. 



THIS species lias been imported by Mr. Abrahams, but is less 

 frequently received than the Cape Canary : it is said to sing 

 well. The cock-bird above is of a yellowish-green colour, becoming 

 more yellow on the lower back, which is also unmarked, whereas the 

 shoulders and front of the dorsal region are streaked with blackish ; 

 the lesser wing- coverts yellowish- green, unmarked, median and greater 

 coverts, flights, and tail-feathers, blackish bordered with yellow ; upper 

 tail-coverts dull yellow, with dusky shaft-streaks ; lores dusky, sur- 

 mounted by a broad golden yellow eyebrow : feathers round eye and 

 ear-coverts dull greenish, succeeded by a broad golden yellow band ; 

 cheeks dull greenish, with a yellow spot at the base of the lower 

 mandible ; throat golden yellow ; the sides and front of neck and the 

 breast pale yellowish green, which colour also extends along the sides 

 of the body ; lower breast and abdomen golden yellow ; under wing- 

 coverts and axillaries yellow ; flights below dusky with greyish inner 

 edges. Length six inches. Beak yellow, the upper mandible dusky, 

 legs dusky, iris dull hazel. The hen is slightly duller than the cock, 

 with less-defined yellow streak on the face. 



5. sulphuratus inhabits South Africa, from the Cape through Natal 

 and the Transvaal to the Masai country in East Africa. According 

 to Ay res this bird is tolerably common at Natal, and feeds upon the 

 hard nutty seeds of small berries, common to many of the shrubs 

 there ; they appear to crack the shells of these seeds with ease and 

 then devour the kernal. 



"It is apparently not uncommon in the Swellendam district, ex- 

 tending as far westward as Caledon. It is also plentiful at Nel's Poort, 

 where we took the eggs in some abundance." 



" The nest is usually placed in a low bush, often only a few 

 inches from the ground ; it is very compact and cup-shaped ; the eggs 

 generally four in number are white, slightly tinged with green, and 

 dotted at the obtuse end, mostly in an annular form with intensely 



