20G 



tains the sfu mu,y be met with at any season^ but 

 it is found in the plaais of the middle provin c 

 only during the winter, as it quits them in the 

 spring for the Andes, where it breeds. It makes 

 its nest upon any kind of tree with small straws 

 and feathers ; it has but tw o young at a brood, 

 but I am inclined to believe that it breeds se- 

 veral times in a season. This bird ranliiplies 

 astonishingly, and may be seen every where; and 

 although the peasants^ who eat as well as encage 

 them, take thousands every year, their numbers 

 are not at all diminished ; it become* alter a little 

 time very familiar, and even attached to those 

 whom it is accustomed to see ; it feeds on se- 

 veral kinds of seeds, but it^ favourite food is iliQ 

 grain of the madia safiva, and the aroniatie 

 leaves of the scandix Chilensis. 



The diuca (friugilla diuca) is of the same 

 genus as the preceding, hut a little laiger, and 

 of a blue colour ; its nf (c is very ai-reenbie, 

 particularly towards day-break; ii keeps abont 

 houses like the .-parrow, Vyhich it rcsenibies in 

 many respects, and I thi-ik it liipjily probable 

 that it is the same bird w iih the blue tpas row of 

 Congo^ mentioned by Merolla and Cavazzi, and 

 the New Zealand bird of Captain Cook, which 

 sung so harmoniously at sunrise. 



The thili, or Chili fturdus thilius) is a species 

 of thrush which, as I have already observed, ap- 

 pears to have given its name to the country 

 3 



