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422 BULLETIN 133, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM
POOSPIZA ORNATA (Landbock)
PJirygilus ornatus Landbock, Journ. fiir Ornith., 1865, p. 405. (Between
the guard house at the Portillo Pass and Melocoton, Mendoza.)
Near Victorica, Pampa, this handsome finch was common from
December 23 to 29, 1920; four specimens taken include a male and
two adult and one juvenile females. The species has been recorded
previously from Mendoza, Rioja, Tucuman, and Cordoba. The
female, in juvenal plumage, is dark mouse gray above with dull
avellaneous margins on the feathers, the margins somewhat brighter
on the rump; a faint superciliar}^ of dull cream buff; remiges and
wing coverts blackish mouse gray, margined with dull avellaneous;
rectrices blackish mouse gray, outer web and half of inner web of
outermost white; three succeeding pairs tipped on inner web with
Avhite; cheeks chaetura drab, faintly mottled with dull buff; below
whitish, washed with pinkish buff streaked everj^where with dark
mouse gray ; undertail coverts pinkish buff.
These finches ranged among bushes or low trees in pasture lands,
where they fed quietly on the ground amid scattered bunch grass or
rested on small limbs sometimes at the summits of little trees. At
this season adults were accompanied by grown young. Males still
sang at intervals a low song, but one sharp and emphatic in its
inflection. Their tilting flight was accompanied by a prominent
display of white in the tail. They were quiet and undemonstrative
and uttered no call notes.
POOSPIZA ASSIMILIS Cabanis
Poospiza assimilis Cabanis, Mus. Hein., pt. 1, 1851, p. 137. (Southern
Brazil and Paraguay.)
Fairly common at San Vicente, Uruguay, from January 28 to 30,
1921, when two males, a female, and a juvenile bird were taken;
seen at Lazcano, Uruguay, Februar}^ 7 and 8, along the Rio Cebollati;
and taken at Rio Negro, Uruguay, February 17 and 18 (two
adult males). The bird in juvenal plumage has breast, throat, sides
of head, and forepart of crown Avashed heavily with olive yellow.
The greater coverts are margined heavily with white, a marking
that may be present or absent in adults. Adult birds taken are in
Avorn plumage or are molting.
Poospiza assimilis was found in dense thickets, where it moved
about in a slow and somewhat sluggish manner. It was decoyed out
into view readily, but after a few seconds dodged back out of sight.
Adult males sang, in spite of rain and wind, from perches among
leaves near the tops of bushes, uttering a shrill song, given earnestly
but with little carrying power. Their song may be Avritten inheef.
see a wheet wheet; the call note was a low clivnt. The young, with