(YELLOW-BILLED SALTATOR.)
+Saltator aurantiirostris+, _d'Orb. Voy., Ois._ p. 288 (Corrientes);
_Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 481 (Mendoza, Cordova, Tucuman,
Paraná); _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 26; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882,
p. 508 (Catamarca); _Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ viii. p. 91
(Concepcion); _Scl. Cat. B._ xi. p. 292.
_Description._--Above cinereous, with a slight olivaceous suffusion;
head rather darker; sides of head and throat black; superciliary
stripe, commencing above the eye, white; beneath pale cinereous
mixed with fulvous, a well-marked guttural collar joining the sides
of the throat black; ends of the outer rectrices more or less varied
with white; bill clear orange; feet greyish brown: whole length
7·5 inches, wing 3·6, tail 3·5. _Female_ similar, less brightly
coloured, and with the guttural collar almost or altogether absent.
_Hab._ Paraguay, Uruguay, and Northern Argentina.
In Corrientes d'Orbigny found this Saltator breeding in the month of
November. It frequents the shrubs and bushes in the neighbourhood of the
houses, and makes an open nest of roots, not of very neat construction.
The eggs are two or three, greenish blue, slightly spotted at the larger
end with blackish and reddish zigzag markings. The egg is figured in
d'Orbigny's 'Voyage' (pl. xxviii. fig. 3).
White tells us that this species is not uncommon in Catamarca, and
Barrows met with it at Concepcion in Entrerios.
Fam. X. FRINGILLIDÆ, or FINCHES.
The extensive family of Finches, which has numerous representatives in
every part of the world, is well represented in the Argentine Republic.
Within the limits assigned to the present work forty-six species of his
group are already known to occur, and it is probable that this number
will be somewhat increased when the Argentine avifauna is thoroughly
worked out.
Most of the genera to which the Argentine Finches belong are forms
peculiar to the Neotropical Region, or at all events to the New World.
The genus _Chrysomitris_, which contains our Siskin and other Old-World
species, is the only one which has a wider distribution.
One of the most characteristic forms of Argentine Fringillidæ is
_Poospiza_, of which seven species are met with within the limits of
the Republic, while _Lophospingus_, _Donacospiza_, _Gubernatrix_, and
_Saltatricula_ are Fringilline types peculiar to Argentina.