Bulletin - United States National Museum - si-pddr - Smithsonian ...

BIRDS OF ARGENTINA, PARAGUAY, URUGUAY, AND CHILE 409
Near General Roca the lesser diuca finch was widely spread
through the arid, gi'avel hills and the less somber brush-covered
flats of the river-flood plain. During early morning they ran or
hopped about on the ground in search for food, but later in the day
were observed resting quietly in some low bush, perched in the sun.
Their flight was strongly undulating. At this season males were
singing a pleasant warbling song, in character like that of some gros-
beak, but nesting had not begun so far as I could ascertain. At Victorica,
Pampa, at the end of December, all were nesting, some having
fresh eggs while others were feeding young a few days old. The
small young have the down on the head dull gray, becoming lighter
behind until it is white over the posterior part of the body. For
nesting sites the finches chose the old stick nests of various tracheo-
jDhones, Anutnbius, and others, strongly made domiciles that with-
stand weathering for some time and with their thorny twigs offer
armed protection against most enemies. The nests chosen ranged
from 300 to 400 mm. in diameter. Eggs or young, as the case might
be, were contained in a covered, concealed nest cavity lined warmly
with plant downs and feathers, comfortable furnishings that had
perhaps been inherited with the rest of the home from the original
occupants. Finches hopped about on many of these nests, and from
time to time I found one that they were occupying. One set of four
fresh eggs was taken from a stick nest 7 feet from the ground in a
low tree. The nest was in good repair with an entrance through an
old tunnel at one side. The ground color of the eggs is very pale
greenish white, while they are heavily marked with indefinite large
and small spots of bone brown and pale dusky brown. They measure
19.6 by 16, 20.1 by 16.6, 20.4 by 16.2, and 21 by 16.2 mm.
(Ph 10.)
A second heavily incubated set contained one egg of the finch and
one of Molothrus h. honanensis. The finch's egg, similar in color to
those described above, measures 20.3 by 16.7 mm.
An adult female of this species, taken November 27, 1920, when
fresh, had the maxilla and tip of mandible blackish slate, rest of
mandible dawn gray ; iris, natal brown ; tarsus, deep neutral gray.
BUARREMON CITRINELLUS Cabanis
Buarremon (Atlapetes) citrinellus Cabanis, Journ. fiir Ornith., 1883, p.
109. (Chaquevil and St. Xavier, Tucuman.)
An adult female was taken at an altitude of 1,800 meters on the
Sierra San Xavier, above Tafi Viejo, Tucuman, April 17, 1921. The
bird was found in a very dense growth of waist-high weeds at the
border of a grove. It was quiet and slow in movement and silent
except for a faint call, tsip.