50 BIRDS OF TIERRA DEL FUEGO 



Habitat. — Chili, Patagonia, and Tierra del Fuego ; the Falkland Islands. 



S, Rio McClelland Settlement, 1st Dec; ? , 7th Dec. ; c?, 8th Dec, 1904. 

 Iris — black ; bill — grey ; legs — dark drab. 



The British Museum series of twenty-five are generally lighter 

 coloured than the Tierra del Fuego birds, especially on the 

 lower portion of the breast and the abdomen : the former are 

 ashy white in this region, whereas the latter birds are yellowish 

 green. 



This Siskin is quite the finest songbird in the island. It 

 reminds one much of the Groldfinch (^Carduelis elegans) in habits 

 and cheery twittering song. It is common in forest country 

 where there are open glades of grass-land. It dashes about 

 from tree clump to tree clump, twittering on the wing. It is 

 ever restless, never remaining long in any one place. Much of 

 its time it is in the leafy branches of trees where foliage is 

 thick, to feed on larvae. Commonly, also, it feeds on plants 

 and grasses on the ground. 



Darwin records it from the forests of Tierra del Fuego, and 

 Valparaiso. 



In the Falkland Islands it is apparently rare. Capt. Abbott 

 states the only instance he knows of its occurrence there was 

 a flock of five in a garden near Stanley in August 1860, one of 

 which was killed and is in Dr. Sclater's collection. 



Durnford says : — " They are generally found in flocks, and in 

 the neighbourhood of trees or low scrub. They have a habit 

 of hanging, Tit-like, from a twig. Their food consists of small 

 seeds, and, judging from their fondness for the large thistle, 

 chiefl}^ of the seed of that plant." 



The stomachs of all specimens examined by me contained 

 phytophagous larvae. 



