Some Colony Birds. 313 



The White-Throated Finch or Ring-Neck. 

 The white- throated tinch or grass-bird (spermophila lineata), com- 

 monly railed the Ring-Neck, is the largest of three black-and-white 

 finches often mistaken for one another. Rightly are these small finches 

 called grass-birds (spermophila, seed-lover) for they feed exclusively on 

 the seed of the larger kinds of grasses, plucking the seed as it grows on 

 the stem and often performing many amusing acrobatic antics in the 

 process. Unlike most other finches they even feed their young on the 

 >ame diet, having however partly digested it in their own crop. Most 

 other finches, as well known, feed their nestlings on insects, and 

 thus our common house-sparrow got itself transported to happier 

 climes by those who had that amount of nature knowledge which proved 

 a dangerous thing, in the hope that it would clear the land of insect 

 pests. Alas, in these happier climes, it devours more grain in harvest 

 time than is compensated for, by its insect destroying propensity in the 

 nesting season ; and it increases apace. 



The White-throat or Ring-Xeck is a stumpy bird with a large head ; 

 it is like a cock-sparrow in form though generally smaller. The head, 

 back, wings, and tail, are dull black ; the throat, white ; the breast, vent, 

 and rump, light grey. There is a ring of white running from the ends 

 of the throat feathers around the neck and broadening on the shoulders, 

 but not meeting at the back. It is almost as if he had a white beard 

 the ends of which were blown over the shoulders. The white feathers 

 of the throat do not quite merge into the grey of the breast, there being 

 ridges of black feathers from the shoulders and almost meeting as they 

 taper to a point in front. There are also two stripes of white across the 

 upper part of the wings : the first, along the upper wing coverts ; and 

 the second across the lower wing coverts and extending along the bases 

 of the primaries as far as the second feather. The hen is a uniform 

 olive-brown, darker on the wings and tail. There is a light brown bar 

 on the wings corresponding to the upper white stripe of her mate. It is 

 distinguished from all other brown hen finches by the shape and colour of 

 the beak, which is black, blunt and rounded, like a typical Jewish nose. 



The song of the white-throat is a bubbling cascade of music, sweet 

 and melodious. This fully compensates for its inelegance of form ; and 

 he is a continual singer. It is extremely fond of a bath and, I may say, 

 of cao-e life, for it will return again and again if set at liberty. He is 

 amiably disposed toward other birds : but. of course, does not sing so 

 persistently as when kept alone. Many song birds in an aviary will 

 not sing at all. 



The Moustache Finches. 



There are two species of these birds, so-called from the more or less 

 moustache-shaped lines of white running from the corners of the mouth. 

 They remind me rather of mutton-chop whiskers. In length they are a 

 little less than the white-throat, but they are beautiful in shape, being- 

 slender and having a longer and more shapely tail ; the head also is small 

 and neat. 



