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

414 BULKETIN 133, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM
Specimens in full juvenal plumage were secured at Victorica,
Pampa, December 27 and Guamini, Buenos Aires, March 7. Birds
were in molt from the latter part of January until the middle of
April.
In a region where finches in variety of species are far from common
Brachysjnza is a welcome sight to the traveler from other lands,
though at times its familiar form may seem somewhat out of
place when in company with tracheophones or others of the more
typical South American birds. In their adaptability to diverse
faunal areas, their abundance, and their trustful acceptance of man
and the changes that he has wrought in the face of the earth, these
sweet-voiced finches have gained a place in the esteem of the countrymen
held by few in lands where anything bearing feathers is regarded
with interest mainly as a potential source of food. Though
found usually in little flocks or at times alone about small openings
in brush or scrub, in the pampas, where such cover is scant, they
come to frequent tracts of weeds or even low grasses or other scant
shelter that may be available. In towns, where they are scattered
through gardens and plazas, and even enter the small patios where
shrubbery may offer shelter, their friendly traits as they come
about in search of crumbs and their restful songs endear them to
the hearts of all.
They feed almost invariably on the ground in a manner usual
among small sparrows, searching for food in open spaces or scratch-
ing with both feet at once where dead vegetation may conceal possible
tidbits. The flight is tilting, and when flushed from the open
they may take refuge in heavy cover or may fly up to rest in a
weed, shrub, or low tree. Their usual call note is a low tsvp^ that
with excitement or fear becomes mOre emphatic and insistent. The
song is a clear, modulated whistle low in tone, but still with sufficient
volume to make it audible for some distance, while not harsh or
unpleasant to the ear when heard near at hand. In some of its
inflections it suggests the notes of an eastern meadow lark {Sturnella
magna) ^ but on the whole has a closer similarit}' to the utterances
of Zonotrichia leucophrys. Though heard at its best in the breeding
season from October to December, it is given more or less constantly
throughout the year, even during the period of molt.
Near Dolores, Buenos Aires, a chingolo, as this bird is known
universally, was seen carrying nesting material on October 21, and
near Lavalle I found the birds in pairs on October 23. In this
region of low elevations they frequented slightly elevated ground
about marshes. At the Estancia Los Yngleses a nest collected
October 30, was placed under a little shrub in an open space surrounded
by small trees that grew among low sand dunes. The
nest, entirely concealed from above, was a very slight structure.