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to Quito, each containing two young ones, and in both cases

built in acacia trees. The young resemble the female, and I

should think maintain that plumage until the second moult.

The number of immature males in proportion to adults was very

great. The male is a brilliant yellow all over the body, with

black wings and a conspicuous band of white across the primaries

near their base ; the secondaries are also broadly margined with

white on the outer edge and the shoulders also. The tail is

black, but the two outer feathers on each side are white on the

broader margin for quite half their length, the central ones

being only tipped with it. The upper and under tail coverts are

white. The female is greenish yellow, and with the wings and

tail veiy brownish. The beak which of course is very thick is

black on the upper half and slate colour on the lower half. The

total length of the bird is eight inches. They were ver}^ fond of

the seeds of the acacia trees whether ripe or green. Their

bright colour renders them conspicuous birds, and very beautiful

indeed do they look flying about. At the village of Pifo in the

Chillo Valle}^ near Quito, I often saw them pecking about on an

old stone wall, probably looking for insects ; as many as four or

five were sometimes there together. I never met witli the

Yellow-bellied Grosbeak on any part of Pickiucka, or indeed at

any altitude above Quito, but I was surprised to see some of

them among a collection of skins which recently reached this

country from Guayaquil, shot in the neighbourhood of that port

on the island of Puna. It is strange that a bird which is found

in the cool mountains at the altitude of Quito, should also in¬

habit the hot coast lands, and I can remember no other bird in

Ecuador to do so except the Black Turkey Vulture.


Another genus of birds which is numerous in and around

Quito is the Diglossus, the most common one there being the

D. aterrima. They are vivacious, attractive-looking birds, and

exceedingly fearless, for on one or two occasions I was sitting in

the room when one entered at the window and searched all over

the place for spiders, taking no notice whatever of me as long as

I was still. In the garden they seem for ever on the go, hunting

for insects in every bush and plant. A pair started nesting in

one of the “patio” gardens of the Consulate, and would not

tolerate the presence of any other bird there. A pair of Hum¬

ming birds (Petasophora iolata), which had reared many nests of

young in the same garden, had their nests pulled to pieces by

the Diglossi eveiy time they started to build : so I should think

they must be rather pugnacious little birds during the nesting



