_Crithagra Brasiliensis._
_Fringilla Brasiliensis_, +Spix+.—Av. Bras. pl. 61.
[68] Length 5 inches, expanse 10, flexure 2⁹⁄₁₀, tail 2²⁄₁₀, rictus
⁵⁄₁₀, tarsus ¹⁷⁄₂₀, middle toe ⁷⁄₁₀. Irides dark hazel; feet
horn-coloured; beak, upper mandible blackish, under pale horny.
Male. Plumage above olive yellow; head lustrous orange, silky;
whole under parts rich golden yellow. Wing and tail feathers dusky
brown, with both edges broadly yellow.
Female. Head and back yellowish grey, with black dashes: throat
whitish; a broad collar of pale yellow encircles the neck; breast
and belly greyish-white. In other respects as the male, but less
vivid. Some males, (young?) have the upper plumage mingled with
greyish ash, and the orange only on forehead and throat.
This very beautiful Finch is rather common in the large park-like
pastures of Mount Edgecumbe, Auchindown, Culloden, and Peter’s Vale,
situated at the eastern extremity of Westmoreland. It is not at
all shy, but hops about the grass, or flits to and fro among the
pimento and orange trees, in parties of three or four, now and then
sitting among the branches, and uttering a monotonous _chip, chip_,
pertinaciously repeated by both sexes without variation. This is the
only note I have heard from them.
These birds are believed in Jamaica to be the descendants of some pairs
of the common Canary turned out. “A gentleman of the colony named
Shakspeare,” observes Mr. Hill, “many years ago, touching at Madeira on
his voyage to this island, is said to have procured several male and
female Canaries, which he set at large in the fields about the rectory
at Black River, where they have multiplied, and have become wild
birds of the country. Many of our grasses produce farinaceous seeds,
extremely nutritious, and supply quite a substitute for the canary-seed
of the African islands. I presume our birds derive their intensity of
colour from this sort of food. They are a beautiful variety of the
natural stock. Of their song I have never been able to learn anything
very distinct, except that heard in the thickets with other birds, it
sounds neither loud nor thrilling, and can barely be recognised as that
of the bird of the aviary. It is said to have lost all its versatility
with its power. Though these imported Canaries have increased so much,
as to be perceptibly common, they are confined to a very small range of
country, being observed nowhere but in the neighbourhood of the place
where the first colony was established. A friend writes me, between
Bluefields and Black River.”
The evidence of the origin of these birds, seems thus very distinct;
and yet the plumage is that never known to be assumed by the true
Canary, while it agrees exactly with the Brazilian species, which,
Spix says, “inhabits the fields of Minas Geraes, and is named Canary.”
The plumage of the wild Canary, in its native islands, is said to be
_less vivid_ than that of caged specimens. It is possible that the
Brazilian birds may have descended from imported birds; or, on the
other hand, that the Madeira parents of ours may have been imported
from Brazil thither; a case the more probable, from the fact of both
being Portuguese colonies.