T H E ST. HELENA SEED-EATER,
Serinus flaviventris, SwAlNS*
T N H A B I T S Soutli Africa, and, according to Mr. Abralmms, also occurs in a wild
1 state in St Helena into wliicli island it lias doubtless been introduced.
Tlie general colour of tlie upper surface in tlie cock bird is yellowish green,
witb blackisli shaft-streaks; the rump more distinctly yellow, and mimarked; upper
tail-coverts dull yellow, blackish centred; tail feathers blackish, with yellow edges;
lesser wing-coverts greenish yellow; median and greater coverts blackish, edged
with yellowish green; bastard wing and primary coverts blackish, fringed with dull
yellow- flight feathers blackish, edged with yellow, most broadly on the secondaries;
the forehead and a broad eye-brow golden yellow; lores dull greenish; feathers
round the eye yellow, as also those below it; ear-coverts yellowish green; cheeks
brio-ht yellow; a dull greenish streak from below the eye along the cheeks, leaving
a -olden yellow patch on the front of the ear-coverts; under surface of body
..olden yellow, as also the under wing-coverts and axillaries; flights below dusky,
with greyish inner edges. Length inches. Beak horn-coloured; the upper
mandible dusky; legs dusky; iris hazel.
The hen is much duller and browner in colouring, the back much more
heavily streaked with blackish, all the yellow-colouring either replaced by green as
on the rump, paler yellow as on the edges of the wing and tail feathers, or greyish
white as on the abdomen and under sides of the flights; the breast and flanks
streaked with smoky brown. Length 5 inches.
This exceedingly beautiful Serin has a really fine song, only surpassed by that
of its tiny relative the Grey Singing Finch, to which indeed it bears a considerable
resemblance, excepting that it is louder, less sustained, and far more rarely heard.
In 1892, finding that my St. Helena Seed-eater, the hen of which had died
• The scientific name 5. butyracea. lias now been set aside to avoil conrnsion, Linnens having given the
same specific name to two nearly allied species of Serins, referred by him to the genera Loxm and Fnngilla
respectively.
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