FEINGILLID^ SERINUS 171 



Description. Adult male. Above, mantle and back yellowish- 

 green narrowly streaked with black ; rump unstreaked yellow ; 

 upper tail-coverts yellowish streaked with dusky; lesser wing- 

 coverts greenish-yellow ; rest of wing blackish-brown, the feathers 

 edged with yellowish ; tail-feathers blackish edged with yellow ; 

 forehead and a broad eyebrow and plumes round the eye golden- 

 yellow ; crown greenish-yellow spotted with dusky ; lores dusky ; 

 ear-coverts greenish-yellow ; sides of face and cheeks yellow 7 ; 

 below, the entire under surface of body, together with the axillaries 

 and under wing-coverts, golden-yellow. 



Iris hazel ; bill horn-colour, darker above ; legs and feet dusky- 

 brown. 



Length 5-40 ; wing 2-80 ; tail 2-20 ; tarsus 0-70; culmen 0-40. 



Adult female. Above, mantle and back greenish broadly streaked 

 with black ; rump unstreaked greenish ; upper tail-coverts dusky 

 edged with greenish; wings dusky brown, the feathers edged with 

 yellowish, the primaries and secondaries with whitish; tail-feathers 

 dusky-brown with lighter edges ; crown grey-green streaked with 

 dusky ; lores, eyebrow and feathers round eye whitish ; ear-coverts 

 brown ; cheeks whitish ; below, dull white, the breast tinged with 

 greenish-yellow and streaked with dusky ; the sides and flanks 

 grey with dusky streaks ; thighs brown ; axillaries and under wing 

 and tail-coverts washed with yellow ; under surface of quills dusky 

 with grey inner margins. 



Iris brown ; upper mandible dusky, the lower light brown ; legs 

 and feet dark brown. 



Length 5-00; wing 2-65; tail 2-25 ; tarsus 0-65; culmen 0-40. 



Distribution. Common in Cape Colony, particularly in the 

 western districts, ranging into the Orange Free State and the 

 Southern Transvaal, where, according to Mr. Ayres, it is common 

 and breeds at Potchefstroom. 



Introduced into and now common at St. Helena. 



Habits. Although not such a favourite cage- bird as the " Cape 

 Canarie," the " Kleine Seisje "is by no means a despicable songster, 

 many of its notes being exceedingly true and sweet. In the neigh- 

 bourhood of Saldanha Bay, where it is, together with the larger 

 Serinus albigularis, abundant among the bushes that overgrow the 

 sandhills at the back of the beach, it breeds in September. A nest 

 found on the 28th of this month, with five fresh eggs, was placed 

 in the top of a low bush about fifteen inches off the ground. It 

 was slightly but neatly constructed of small twigs and dry grass- 



