(LESSER DIUCA FINCH.)
+Diuca minor+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 483 (San Louis,
Cordova); _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 31; _Hudson, P. Z. S._
1872, p. 537 (Rio Negro); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1878, p. 393 (Tombo
Point, Pat.); _Döring, Exp. al Rio Negro, Zool._ p. 39 (R.
Colorado, R. Negro); _Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ viii.
p. 131 (Concepcion, Entrerios).
_Description._--Grey; head, neck, and back faintly washed with
brown; wings blackish, the feathers edged with brownish grey;
tail-feathers black, tipped with white on the inner webs; beneath,
from the bill to the chest, white; upper part of breast and sides
grey; rest of the under surface white; a bright chestnut spot on
the flanks: whole length 6·5 inches, wing 3·2, tail 2·6. _Female_
similar, but less bright than male.
_Hab._ Argentina and Patagonia.
This pretty little grey-and-white Finch is common on the Chilian side
of the Andes and throughout Patagonia, and also occurs in the Mendoza
district. It is a tuneful bird, lively, social, and frolicsome in
disposition; in autumn and winter uniting in flocks of from fifty to
three or four hundred individuals; swift of flight, and when on the wing
fond of pursuing its fellows and engaging in mock battles. The song of
the male is very pleasing, the voice having more depth and mellowness
than is usual with the smaller fringilline singers, which, as a rule,
have thin, reedy, and tremulous notes. In summer it begins singing
very early, even before the faintest indication of coming daylight is
visible, and at that dark silent hour the notes may be heard at a great
distance and sound wonderfully sweet and impressive. During the cold
season, when they live in companies, the singing-time is in the evening,
when the birds are gathered in some thick-foliaged tree or bush which
they have chosen for a winter roosting-place. This winter-evening song
is a hurried twittering, and utterly unlike the serene note of the male
bird heard on summer mornings. A little while after sunset the flock
bursts into a concert, which lasts several minutes, sinking and growing
louder by turns, and during which it is scarcely possible to distinguish
the notes of individuals. Then follows an interval of silence, after
which the singing is again renewed very suddenly and as suddenly ended.
For an hour after sunset, and when all other late singers, like the
_Mimus_, have long been silent, this fitful impetuous singing is
continued. Close by a house on the Rio Negro, in which I spent several
months, there were three very large chañar bushes, where a multitude
of Diuca Finches used to roost, and they never missed singing in the
evening, however cold or rainy the weather happened to be. So fond were
they of this charming habit, that when I approached the bushes or stood
directly under them, the alarm caused by my presence would interrupt the
performance only for a few moments, and presently they would burst into
song again, the birds all the time swiftly pursuing each other amongst
the foliage, often within a foot of my head.
The eggs, Darwin says (Zool. Voy. 'Beagle,' iii. p. 93), are pointed,
oval, pale dirty green, thickly blotched with pale dull brown, becoming
confluent and entirely coloured at the broad end.