46 



53. SPERMOPHILA C]RULESCENS (VieilU 

 (SCREAMING FINCH.) 



Spermophila caerulescens, Scl. Ibis, 1871, p. 12 ; Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 28 ; 

 White, P. Z. S. 1882, p. 598 (Buenos Ayres) ; Barrows, Bull Nutt. Orn. Cl. 

 viii. p. 92 (Conception) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. xii. p. 126. Sporophila ornata, 

 Burm. La-Plata Reise, ii. p. 488 (Mendoza, Parana). Spermophila 

 ornata, Scl. et Salv. P. Z. 8. 1869, p. 632 j Durnford, Ibis, 1877, p. 170 

 (Buenos Ayres) ; Salv. Ibis, 1880, p. 353 (Salta). 



Description. Above pale smoky brown ; front and lores black ; beneath, 

 chin and upper part of throat black, with a distinct white mystacal stripe 

 on each side ; fore neck white ; broad band across the chest black ; abdomen 

 white, slightly varied with grey and black on the flanks ; under wing-coverts 

 white ; bill pale horn-colour ; feet brown : whole length 4-8 inches, wing 2*3, 

 tail 1*9. Female pale olive-brown; wings and tail darker; beneath lighter, 

 tinged with ochraceous ; middle of the belly almost white. 



Hab. Southern Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, and Bolivia. 



This species is a summer visitor in Buenos Ayres, and is one of the last 

 to arrive and first to depart of our migrants. These birds are always 

 most abundant in plantations, preferring peach-trees, but do not asso- 

 ciate 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 chirp, also a song composed of eight or ten notes, de- 

 livered with such vehemence and rapidity, that they run into each 

 other and sound more like a scream 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 substi- 

 tuted ; and so little material is used that, standing under the tree, a 

 person can easily count the 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 this slight structure, through which the sun- 

 shine 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 



