107



THE FRINGILLIN/E.


IX.—THE AEARIO FINCH.


Alario alario, Finn.


By H. R. Fiixmer.


In colouring the male bears a superficial resemblance tO'

the Reed Bunting. The back and tail are a dark reddish brown

(the colour of a bay horse), the entire head and throat are black

and the black extends down on each side of the breast in the

shape of an inverted V. The under-surface of the body is

dirty white, and that colour extends upwards over the shoulders,

meeting at the back of the neck where it forms an exceedingly

narrow collar.


In the female the black on the head, throat, and sides

of the breast is absent, and the breast and abdomen are pale

brownish, with darker markings at the throat and breast. The

brown on the back is greyer and less brilliant than in the male.


Young males are very much like the old females, and

assume the black head gradually after a moult. But I have

possessed young males with black heads, which yet were not in

full plumage ; one of these moulted in my possession several

months after importation, and then assumed the full plumage of

the adult male ; when I first bought him he was quite unlike a

hen, and yet his colours were much less distinct and well defined

than they are in the adult cock. I inferred from this that the

male did not assume full plumage till after the second moult,

but when I bred this species I found this inference quite wrong,

for my aviary-bred cock came into full plumage alter the first

moult, and when only a few weeks old. Perhaps the shock

to the system caused by the change of climate delays the com¬

pletion of the first moult in young imported birds, and causes

them to remain for months in an intermediate, half-moulted,

state of plumage, which they would naturally pass through in a

few days.


Athough very soberly attired, the Alario Finch is a pretty

bird ; but its chief attractions are not its beauty, but its very

sweet song and its great tameness.


The song is low and warbling, a little like that of the

Goldfinch. There are no loud or harsh notes, and while almost as

varied and musical as that of the Canary the song of the Alario

Finch is not sufficiently loud to irritate even the most sensitive

ear. The Alario Finch is not such a good singer as the Grey

Singing Finch, but still I claim for it a very high place as a

songster. A healthy cock bird will sing almost continuously.



