FAMILY FRINGILLIDAE 



S83 



but nothing has been recorded of its life history. The birds at Cerro 

 Punta were in loose flocks and were quite tame and approachable. 



SICALIS FLAVEOLA FLAVEOLA (Linnaeus): Saffron Finch, 

 Pinzon Azafranado 



Fringilla flaveola Linnaeus, 1766, Syst. Nat., ed. 12, 1, p. 321. (Surinam.) 



Small; crown orange, upper surface greenish yellow; undersurface 

 bright yellow. 



Description. — Length 127-134 mm. Adult (sexes alike), crown 

 orange; rest of upper surface, including wing coverts, greenish yellow, 

 finely streaked with dusky, slightly less greenish on rump and upper tail 

 coverts; remiges and rectrices blackish brown, edged bright yellow on 

 outer web and inner webs; sides of head, throat, and breast light 

 orange, becoming rich yellow on rest of undersurface. 



Immature, upper surface gray, finely streaked with dusky brown and 

 dull greenish yellow; remiges and rectrices like those of adult; under- 

 surface white, tinged gray, with breast and undertail coverts dull rich 

 yellow. 



Measurements. — Males (10 from South America and Jamaica), 

 wing 69.5-76.5 (73.6), tail 49.9-56.3 (52.7), oilmen from base 11.2- 

 13.5 (12.3), tarsus 18.2-19.5 (19.0) mm. 



Females (9 from South America), wing 68.5-75.0 (71.0), tail 49.1- 

 56.0 (52.3), culmen from base 11.3-12.5 (11.7) tarsus 17.6-20.1 (18.5) 

 mm. 



Resident. Confined to the Caribbean coast of the Canal Zone; ap- 

 parently introduced. The Saffron Finch was first seen in Panama in 

 1951, when, on June 3, Dr. and Mrs. Robert Scholes photographed a 

 pair in front of the clubhouse at Gatun, Canal Zone (Scholes, Condor, 

 1954, p. 167). The birds seemed wild, and nothing about their plum- 

 age suggested recent caging, but the possibility cannot be ruled out. 

 Two years later, Eisenmann saw at least 2 birds of this species in the 

 same area. Ridgely (1976, p. 336) reports that it has been seen as far 

 east in the Canal Zone as Coco Solo and there are occasional reports 

 from the Chagres River Valley up to around Gamboa. Ridgely (in litt. ) 

 notes that as of 1982 the species is locally common in this restricted 

 area, but seems not to be increasing or spreading. It is found almost ex- 

 clusively on or near lawns in residential areas. The male's song is "an 

 endlessly repeated but rather musical tzip-tzip-tzee-tzee." 



The normal range of this race is from Colombia along the coast of 



