THK WHITE-THROATED FINCH. 87 



disposition of its colours, of our European House-Martin. The general 

 hue above is slate-grey, the feathers of the mantle being mottled with 

 dusky near their extremities ; the feathers of the wings, with the 

 exception of the lesser coverts, are blackish, with pale grey edges ; the 

 outer webs of the middle primaries are white at the base ; the upper tail 

 coverts are blackish, with broad pale grey borders, the tail feathers 

 black, with narrow grey edges ; crown of head dark slate-grey, mottled 

 at the back with black and entirely black in front ; lores black, 

 surmounted by a narrow white line ; feathers round eye and ear coverts 

 black, the latter greyish behind ; cheeks and under parts snow-white, 

 with a broad band of black across the throat ; the sides of the body 

 slightly greyish ; thighs black at the back ; lower wing coverts forming 

 a dusky patch near the edge of the wing ; quills below blackish, with 

 the base of the inner web white, edged with grey ; beak yellow ; legs 

 dusky ; length 4 ft inches. The female is brown, with black beak ; under 

 parts paler. 



This bird is very hardy, active, always neat and clean in appearance, 

 tolerably tame and a most industrious singer. The song is rather 

 superior to that of the majority of Brazilian birds, and may be thus 

 syllabled " Chee wow, chee wow, chee wow ; techee, techee, techee ; tsivmv-tsivee, 

 tswow-tsivee, techee, techee." This is repeated over and over again in- 

 cessantly, sometimes for hours together, with short pauses for refresh- 

 ment : the " tswow-tswee " part of the song is rather beautiful, but the 

 " techee " part too high in pitch, too nearly resembling stopper-screwing 

 to be altogether pleasing. 



The White-throated Finch is rarely aggressive, excepting to its 

 cousin the Bluish Finch ; which it rather enjoys swooping down upon 

 unexpectedly, making the latter shriek out a malediction ; but in 1896 

 I purchased a male, which during that year was perfectly harmless, yet 

 about the beginning of April, 1897, it developed avicidal mania and 

 murdered a male Amaduvade, a Green Amaduvade, a Chestnut-breasted 

 Finch and four Zebra- finches ; one of the latter it literally tore to 

 pieces; it also knocked down, and would have killed a hen Goldfinch if 

 I had not interfered. I removed it to my Weaver aviary, where for 

 some weeks it was cowed, but eventually its mania got the better of its 

 prudence and I found it dead, scalped by some Weaver which it had 

 attacked. Both species feed on white millet, millet in the ear and 

 canary seed : in the summer, when the wild grasses are seeding, a 

 handful thrown on the floor of the aviary, provides a treat for them, but 

 in the winter ripe grass-seed is not despised. 



So far as I can discover nothing has been published respecting the 



