FAMILY FRINCILLIDAE 



619 



(in lift.) notes that he has found it common down to about 1250 m 

 around Volcan and toward Cerro Punta, from there upward on the 

 western side of El Volcan, but it seems much less numerous on the 

 eastern side. 



The Yellow-bellied Siskin inhabits clearings, pastures with trees, 

 and forest edges. It is usually seen in small flocks except when nesting, 

 and often feeds high in trees. At Cerro Punta, a pair fed at the heads 

 of a tall thistle-like composite in the garden behind our house. The song 

 of this species is a thin, musical twitter, often delivered when the birds 

 are in groups. Skutch (Publ. Nutt. Orn. Club, no. 7, 1967, pp. 179- 

 180) found two nests built by a pair of these siskins in Costa Rica, 

 but the eggs vanished from each before hatching. The first nest was 

 built in late April. Both nests were 3 m from the ground in trees; they 

 were made by the female out of fibrous bask and rootlets, fungal 

 strands, and pieces of bear-lichen, probably Usnea sp. The outside of 

 one was irregularly covered with tufts of green moss and was thickly 

 lined with fine, black, fungal filaments. This nest measured 8.5 cm in 

 diameter by 6.2 cm in height; the diameter of the cavity was 4.5 cm and 

 its depth 2.7 cm. The eggs were white with a slight greenish tinge; 

 three were laid in the first nest, two in the second. 



CARDUELIS PSALTRIA CROCEA (Jouy): Dark-backed Goldfinch, 

 Pinzon Dorado Espaldinegro 



Spinus psaltria crocea Jouy, "1893," Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., 16, p. 780, pub. April 

 18, 1894. (Panama.) 



Very small; male, upper surface glossy bluish black, with white 

 patches on wings and tail; undersurface bright yellow; female, upper 

 surface yellowish green; wings and tail blackish with white patches; 

 undersurface yellow. 



Description. — Length 89-95 mm. Adult male, upper surface glossy 

 bluish black; wings black with small white patch at base of inner pri- 

 maries, and outer web of tertials tipped white; tail black with large 

 white patch on inner web of outer two pairs of rectrices; entire under- 

 surface rich yellow; underwing coverts white. 



Adult female, upper surface yellowish green; wing coverts blackish, 

 tipped yellowish green; remiges blackish, with small white patch at 

 base of inner primaries; outer web of tertials tipped white; tail black- 

 ish, with outer webs finely edged yellowish green and white patch on 

 inner web of outer pair of rectrices; undersurface rich yellow, slightly 

 more greenish on breast; underwing coverts white and light gray. 



Immature, like female, but duller, more greenish. 



