58 FRINGILLID.E. 



77. ZONOTBJCHIA PILEATA (BodcL). 

 (CHINGOLO SONG-SPARROW.) 



Zonotrichia pileata, Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S. 1868, p. 139, iid. Nomencl. p. 31 ; 

 Salvin, Ibis, 1880, p. 355 (Salta) ; Gibson, Ibis, 1880, p. 28 (Buenos Ayres) ; 

 White, P. Z. S. 1882, p. 600 (Buenos Ayres) ; Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl. 

 viii. p. 131 (Concepcion). Zonotrichia matutina, Burm. La-Plata Reise, ii. 

 p. 486. 



Description. Above dusky grey, striped with blackish brown ; the top of the 

 head from the bill to the nape grey ; a whitish stripe from the eye to the nape ; 

 between the stripe and the grey on the crown black ; a narrow chestnut ring 

 round the neck, widening to a large patch on the sides of the chest, the patch 

 bordered with black on its lower part ; beneath, throat white ; breast and belly 

 ashy white ; bill and feet light horn-colour : whole length 5*7 inches, wing 2'8, 

 tail 2-2. Female similar, but duller in colour and a trifle smaller. 



Hab. Central and South America. 



The common, familiar, favourite Sparrow over a large portion of the 

 South- American continent is the " Chingolo." Darwin says that "it 

 prefers inhabited places, but has not attained the air of domestication 

 of the English Sparrow, which bird in habits and general appearance it 

 resembles." As it breeds in the fields on the ground, it can never be 

 equally familiar with man, but in appearance it is like a refined copy of 

 the burly English Sparrow more delicately tinted, the throat being 

 chestnut instead of black ; the head smaller and better proportioned, 

 and with the added distinction of a crest, which it lowers and elevates 

 at all angles to express the various feelings affecting its busy little mind. 



On the treeless desert pampas the Chingolo is rarely seen, but 

 wherever man builds a house and plants a tree there it comes to keep 

 him company, while in cultivated and thickly settled districts it is 

 excessively abundant, and about Buenos Ayres it literally swarms in 

 the fields and plantations. They are not, strictly speaking, gregarious, 

 but where food attracts them, or the shelter of a hedge on a cold windy 

 day, thousands are frequently seen congregated in one place ; when 

 disturbed, however, these accidental flocks immediately break up, the 

 birds scattering abroad in different directions. 



The Chingolo is a very constant singer, his song beginning with the 

 dawn of day in spring, and continuing until evening ; it is very short, 

 being composed of a chipping prelude and four long notes, three uttered 

 in a clear thin voice, the last a trill. This song is repeated at brief 

 intervals, as the bird sits motionless, perched on the disc of a thistle- 

 flower, the summit of a stalk, or other elevation ; and where the Chin- 

 golos are very abundant, the whole air, on a bright spring morning, is 

 alive with their delicate melody ; only one must pause and listen before 



