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although its notes are much the same, the song is scarcely so

sustained. They are to be seen on the topmost twigs of every

hedge, and during the months of August and September, I saw

many of their nests in the bushes on Pichincha nearly 2,000 ft.

higher up than Quito. We also found these birds still more

numerous at Papallacta. Their food consisted principally of

berries. The male is not nearly so black as our English

blackbird, neither are the beak and legs so yellow. The female

is very brownish and the breast somewhat speckled. The total

length of the bird is just over 12 inches. At times I saw a few in

captivity in Quito, and we had one at the Consulate, which used

to whistle beautifully in the early mornings and evenings. We

first met with them in the mountains of Southern Columbia.


On the Western-side of Pichincha we met with the much

rarer T. leucops. This is a small bird only just 8 inches in length.

The male is very black and glossy all over, and the beak and legs

bright yellow: the female is brown and speckled, and more

resembles our thrush in colouring, the young taking after her. I

cannot say if this species has much song, for it is rare 011

Pichincha, and we only procured one adult pair and two young

ones. I once came across one of their nests. It was in a bush

about 4ft. from the ground, and was made of dry grass and moss,

not a particularly neat structure, and contained three blue eggs.

One was quite plain without any markings whatever, but the

other two were slightly speckled with brownish black.


Another bird very common in the vicinity of Quito is the

Pcecilothraicpis igniventris. This exceedingly handsome bird of

course belongs to the Tanager family, and like the T. gigas was

always to be seen on the tops of bushes and hedges,. I never

dissected one but what I found it had been feeding exclusively 011

berries. I was told in Quito that they often caged them, but

that they never lived long in captivity. This I am quite sure was

only due to their ignorance in giving them unsuitable food, for a

miserable specimen I once saw in a cage had only canary seed

and soaked bread to eat, and its owner wondered why it died.

With proper food there is no doubt they would be very hardy

birds. They are bright and active and have some rather sweet

notes. Even in a wild state they seemed tamer than the general

run of birds, and allowed one to get quite close to them, when

instead of taking flight, they would all of a sudden drop from

the twig they were sitting on into the bush below, as if they

had been shot. The length of the bird is 7^ inches. The head,

neck, throat, back, wings and tail are black, while the breast and



