SERINUS 167 



Africa. The majority are gifted with good voices, and several of 

 the species are pre-eminently brilliant songsters, and are, as a 

 result, favourite cage-birds. All feed on both seeds and insects. 

 They build open nests, and lay from three to six white, or bluish- 

 white eggs, sometimes unspotted, but more often marked with 

 black or brown dots and streaks. The young are fed on insects 

 and on partly digested food from the crops of the parent birds. 



Serinus flaviventris. 



Key to the Species (after Sharpe). 



a. Flanks unstreaked. 



a 1 . Chin and throat yellow. 



a 2 . Sides and back of neck grey, crown yellowish S. canicollis, p. 168. 

 6 2 . Sides and back of neck as well as the 



crown greenish. 

 a 3 . Tail not tipped with white. 



a 4 . Throat and abdomen yellow ; breast 



and sides greenish ..................... S. sulphuratus, p. 169. 



6 4 . Entire under surface yellow. 



a 5 . Above greenish streaked with dusky S. flaviventris $ , p. 170. 

 5 5 . Above yellowish only slightly 



streaked .............................. ... S.imberUs <^,p. 172. 



c 5 . Above brown-black ........................ S. rendalli <^,p. 172. 



6 3 . Tail tipped with white ..................... S. icterus #,p. 173. 



6 1 . Chin and throat white. 

 c 2 . Eump yellowish. 



6 3 . Kump greenish-yellow ..................... S. alUgularis, p. 174. 



c 3 . Kump bright yellow ......... . .............. S. crocopygius, p. 176. 



cP. Rump brown like the back .................. 8. leucopterus, p. 177. 



b. Flanks streaked with dusky. 



c 1 . Chin black, throat yellow .................... :... S. scotops, p. 177. 



*. Chin and throat white 



Chin white, throat black ........................ S. angolensis, p. 178. 



