PYRENESTES FRONTALIS. 
DIMENSIONS. 
Inches. Lines. 
Length from the point of the bill to 
the tip of the tail 7 4 
of the bill from the angle of 
the month 0 9 
of the wings when folded 3 9 
of the tail 3 0 
Length of the tarsus . . . 
of the outer toe 
of the middle toe 
of the inner toe . 
of the hinder toe . 
The colours of the other sex not known. 
Inches. Lines. 
i i* 
0 5 
0 9 
0 6 
0 5 
{Bird of the Second year. Plate LXII a.) 
Colour. — The front, the head, and the neck dull orange-coloured brown, 
the feathers margined with yellowish brown ; the interscapulars, back, and 
rump umber-brown, the feathers tipped with yellowish brown. The lesser 
wing coverts, the quill coverts, and the quill and tail feathers dark liver- 
brown, with light sienna-coloured tips, the base of wing feathers white. The 
breast, belly, vent, and under tail coverts dirty chocolate-red, the feathers 
edged and tipped with pale cream-yellow. Bill at base and tip liver-brown, 
elsewhere pale orange-yellow. Legs and toes liver-brown. 
( Young bird. Plate LXII b.) 
Above dusky orange-coloured brown, the feathers narrowly margined with 
pale yellowish brown ; below white, freely blotched with chocolate-red, the 
blotches in the form of longitudinal stripes, one along the middle of each fea- 
ther. Quill and tail feathers dirty brownish-red, the outer vanes faintly 
edged with yellowish brown ; no white at the base of the quill feathers, 
hence the white speculum, found in the adult, is absent. The tip of the 
upper and the base of both mandibles livid liver-brown, elsewhere the bill is 
nearly of a Dutch-orange colour. 
This is the only species of the groupe which has yet been found in South Africa. Its bill is 
very powerful, and is, with regard to size and strength, unapproached by any of the other 
Fringillida of that country. Owing to the sides being moderately compressed, or at all 
events, not so convex as in the larger-billed species of the tribe, it exhibits a peculiar descrip- 
tion of culmen, being especially towards its base broad and perfectly flat ; this appearance it 
presents for more than half its length, and anteriorly, is separated on each side from the lateral 
parts of the bill by a well defined longitudinal groove, which originates on the inner side of the 
anterior extremity of the nostrils. 
Most of the Fringillidce of South Africa resort to localities which abound in brushwood or 
dwarf trees. Pyrenestes frontalis, on the other hand, inhabits exclusively the forests, and 
never condescends to visit but the largest trees, hence it is only very partially scattered over 
the country. The only specimens which have been obtained within the limits of the Cape 
Colony were discovered in the forests upon the eastern frontier. About Port Natal, however 
the bird is not so rare, and specimens are readily to be obtained there at all seasons of the year 
It feeds principally upon berries and small fruits. 
