YELLOW-BREASTED MARSH-BIRD 123 
YELLOW-BREASTED MARSH-BIRD 
Pseudoleistes virescens 
Olive-brown and glossy ; shoulders and breast bright yellow ; length 
9.5 inches. Female similar. 
IN both sexes in this species the plumage is deep 
olivaceous brown, the breast pure yellow. It is 
active, strong on the wing, sociable and noisy; and 
being, moreover, a pretty and elegant bird, very 
common in settled districts, and with a preference 
for man’s neighbourhood, it is familiar to every one, 
and has won amongst many competitors the verna- 
cular name of Pecho-amarillo (Yellow-breast), for with 
us yellow-breasted species are somewhat numerous. 
It remains all the year, invariably going about in 
flocks of from twenty to thirty birds, and feeds on 
the ground in the fields or on the open plain. While 
they are feeding, one bird takes up a position on a 
stalk or thistle-top to keep guard; when he flies 
down another bird takes his place; if a person 
approaches, the sentinel gives the alarm, and all the 
birds fly off in a very close flock, making the air 
resound with their loud ringing notes. After feeding 
they repair to the trees, where they join their robust 
voices in a spirited concert, without any set form 
of melody such as other song-birds possess, but all 
together, flinging out their notes at random, as if 
mad with joy. In this delightful hubbub there are 
some soft silvery sounds. Where they are never 
persecuted they have little fear of man, but they 
