A. Morrison—The Genus Sporophila



5



References. —Russ, vol. i, pp. 563, 685. Neunzig, p. 242. Breeding

Records , p. 3. Butler, p. 144. Bird Notes, 1912, pp. 115, 197 ; 1913,

p. 139 ; 1915, pp. 65, 95 ; vol. vi, pp. 61, 88.


This bird is occasionally imported and, although not very striking,

it appears to be very desirable being harmless and a good songster.

They were bred by Dr. Russ, and in 1880 by Jantzen, of Hamburg.

Page was the first to breed this species in England, in 1912, and it has

been bred once or twice since. The Grey Finch appears to build the

usual fragile looking little nest in a bush, and incubation lasts thirteen

days. The young leave the nest after a further period of fourteen days.

The eggs are lead grey with sharply defined blackish scrawls, and spots

overlaying indistinct violet and grey ground patches.



Eulers Finch (S. superciliaris)


Male. —Above, olive green, darker on the top of the head ; lores,

eyelid, and eyebrow streak whitish yellow ; ear coverts, olive brown

with whitish shaft lines; cheeks and throat, white washed with yellowish ;

sides of neck like the upper surface; breast, grey washed with yellowish ;

lower breast and centre of belly, white ; sides of body, greyish brown

shading into olive ; under tail coverts, pale brownish yellow with the

bases of the feathers darker and washed with olive ; thighs, brownish

olive ; lesser wing coverts, like the upper surface ; inner coverts, dark

brown with olive edges and whitish ochre tips ; rest of wing feathers

and those of tail, dark brown edged with olive ; axillaries and under-wing

coverts, white with olive yellow edges ; irides, dark brown ; bill,

brownish grey, heavy, and strongly curved with a larger lower mandible

which overlaps the cutting edges of the upper ; feet, brownish grey.


Juvenile Male. —Resembles female.


Female. —Above, darker than the male ; eyelid and lores, olive

yellow ; ear coverts, throat, and sides of face, dull olive ; breast and

sides of body, olive brown, washed with yellowish ; centre of belly,,

yellowish white ; under tail coverts, brown ; wings and tail, as in the

male, but with the pale markings greyish; irides, brown ; beak, blackish

brown ; feet, blackish grey.


Hah itat.— Brazil.



