THE



Bvtcultural fllbagastne,


BEING THE JOURNAL OF THE


AVICULTURAL SOCIETY.



VOL. VI. — NO. 65. All rights reserved. MARCH, 1900.


A NATURALIST’S NOTES IN ECUADOR.


By Walter Goodfeelow.


(Continued from page *]3).


In my article last month, I alluded to the Blue-shouldered

Tanager as an example of a bright-coloured member of that

family coming from a cool climate. I might have gone still

another thousand feet higher, and spoken of Darwin’s Tanager

(T. darwini), for this bird is actually found in the gardens of

Quito, at an altitude of 10,000 ft. I don’t say this is its per¬

manent home, but I continuously met with it in the gardens of the

British Consulate there, especialty in the months of December

and January, when it came to feed on the seeds of various

flowering trees. Our Consul looked upon it as a great enemy,

always to be slaughtered without compassion. Its presence in

the garden was soon known from its beautiful clear call-note,

like a long drawn-out whistle on one note going up the

scale, and then the same let out again, descending. This

was always followed with a loud cry of “ Uarichi,” uttered

three times in succession. •‘Uarichi” is the name they are

locally known by. This note is rather too loud to be agreeable.

I found out nothing that I can remember about the nesting

habits of this species, but no doubt they nest during the months

of November and December in the “ quebradas ” around Quito.

These “ quebradas ” are the huge earthquake rents, forming

quite valleys, and which intersect volcanic Ecuador from end to

end. Around Quito, the country is quite cut up by them, and in

these warmer spots, no doubt, this bird rears its family. It

seemed to me strange that all the birds whose nests I came

across, in, and around Quito, never I believe contained more

than two eggs. This was the case with the Black-winged

Siskin, and various Diglossi and Grallarias, etc. So no doubt

Darwin’s Tanager conforms to what seems almost to be an

established rule in these high altitudes. I saw several of these



