'^^3-J Barrows on Birds of the Loivei- Uruguay. n 9 



tail nearly as in male but duller, and the inner secondaries with narrower 

 and more yellowish edgings; white spot on primaries same as in male. 

 Upper mandible brown, lower pale yellowish. Length, 4.15 inches; 

 extent, 6.65 ; wing, 2.07 ; tail, 1.65. 



A male, seemingly immature, yet taken at the same time as the others 

 and in breeding condition, has the upper parts precisely like those of the 

 female, except that most of the greenish-olive is replaced by brownish- 

 olive ; the edgings of inner secondaries are broader and lighter, and the 

 rump shows several cinnamon feathers. Below, the color is a mixture of 

 pale buff and cinnamon, all the feathers of the chin and throat showing 

 hoary tips, while the middle of the belly is nearly pure cinnamon. 



An adult male taken in late summer (Feb. 2, 1880) is not essentially 

 different from specimens taken in November and December. The areas 

 of color are the same ; the white is soiled, the cinnamon pale and dull, 

 the ash of head and back has given place to a dirty gray by the wearing 

 away of the tips and edges of the feathers, and the inner secondaries have 

 lost their light edgings in the same way. 



This diminutive Finch seems to resemble Sfiorophila hy;poxantha (Cab.) 

 more than any other member of the genus, and it would not be strange if 

 a careful comparison oi falustris ^nA" kypoxa?zt/m in their different plu- 

 inages should result in the fusion of the two under one name. As no spec- 

 iinen of hyfoxantha, however, is at present available for comparison, 

 reference to its descriptions alone is possible, and if they are correct there 

 can be little doubt of the specific distinctness of the present species. 



Early in February, 1880, two specimens of an unrecognized 

 Finch were seen by the writer on the edge of a marsh at Con- 

 cepcion where coarse grass is cut for thatching the houses of the 

 humbler classes. One of these birds was secured and pronounced 

 by Dr. Burmeister of the Buenos Aires Museum to be new to the 

 fauna of the region, so far as he was aware. A careful lookout 

 for other specimens was kept, but nearly ten months elapsed be- 

 fore another individual was taken. 



Resting one hot November noon in the scanty shade of a bush 

 on the edge of one of the large marshes which border the lower 

 Uruguay, my ear caught the notes of a song which seemed at 

 first to be that of the common Goldfinch of the country ( Chry- 

 somitrzs magellanica) but which, as it rambled on, developed a 

 variety and sweetness far beyond the powers of that bird. An 

 attempt being made to approach the bird, however, it developed 

 other powers of a more practical and (to me) less satisfactory 

 kind, and it was only after a half-mile chase through an indescri- 

 bable mixture of land, water, and grass — the latter predomi- 

 nating — that a lucky third shot brought it down and a long hunt 



