438. BIRDS OF BRITISH GUIANA. 



The following note has been copied from Beebe (Tropical Wild 

 Life in British Guiana, p. 239) : — 



•' The little Chestnut-bellied Seed-eater {Sporophila castanei- 

 ventris) built a larger nest and was not so particular about tlic 

 material used. It invariably selected a low bush, so that the sitting 

 bird was never more than eighteen inches from the ground. The 

 nest was perhaps a little better built, for the walls were thicker 

 and there was a slight lining of finer grass on the inside. Some- 

 times they decorated the nest. The top of one found in George- 

 town in February was covered with white downy cotton obtained 

 from the pods of a weed gi'owing nearby. It gave the nest the 

 ap])earance of a white cotton ring hanging in the bush. 



"They laid from two to three whitish eggs, thickly spotted 

 with brown and lilac, and more or less covered with fine, irregular 

 lines of black." 



627. Microphila minuta. 



Pygmy Seed-eater. 



Loxia minuta Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 176, 1758 (Surinam). 

 Spermophila mimita Salvin, Ibis, 1885, p. 214 (liorairaa, 3500 ft.) ; 



Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xii. p. 109, 1888 (Georgetown, lloraima) ; 



Quelch, Timehri (2) v. p. 83, 1891 (Georgetown). 

 Sporojjliila minuta Brabourne & Chubb, B. S. Amer. i. p. 365, no. 3745, 



1912. 

 Sporophila mimita minuta Beebe, Our Search for a AVilderness, p. 142, 



1910 (Hoorie Creek) ; id. Tropical Wild Life in British Guiana, 



p. 136, 1917 (Bartica). 



" Grass-birds" (Quelch) ; "Pygmy Seed-eater " (Beehe), 



Adult male. Crown of head, sides of face, hind-neck, upper back, 

 and lesser upper wing-coverts dusky greyish brown ; median and 

 greater upper wing-coverts, bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and 

 flight-quills blackish brown with pale edgings to the feathers, all 

 the flight-quills, except the outermost one, white at the base ; 

 lower back, rump, and short upper tail-coverts chestnut : long 

 upper tail-coverts like the upper back ; tail dark brown with 

 pale edgings to the feathers; cheeks, throat, sides of neck, breast, 

 abdomen, sides of body, and under tail-coverts chestnut ; axil- 

 laries, under wing-coverts, and base of flight-quills below white ; 

 greater under wing-coverts, quill-lining, and lower aspect of tail 

 hair-brown. 



