Sporophila rufirostris, Landb. J. f. O. 1865, p. 404 (Mendoza). Catamenia inornata, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 31. Spermophila inornata, Sharpe, Cat. B. xii. p. 104.
Description.—Above dull grey, clearer on the rump; wings and tail blackish, wing-feathers edged with grey; beneath grey, under tail-coverts bright chestnut; bill red; feet brown: whole length 5·0 inches, wing 2·5, tail 2·2.
Hab. Bolivia and N. Argentina.
Examples of this species were obtained by Weisshaupt near Mendoza in 1871.
[77.] ZONOTRICHIA PILEATA (Bodd.).
(CHINGOLO SONG-SPARROW.)
Zonotrichia pileata, Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S. 1868, p. 139, iid. Nomencl. p. 31; Salvin, Ibis, 1880, p. 355 (Salta); Gibson, Ibis, 1880, p. 28 (Buenos Ayres); White, P. Z. S. 1882, p. 600 (Buenos Ayres); Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl. viii. p. 131 (Concepcion). Zonotrichia matutina, Burm. La-Plata Reise, ii. p. 486.
Description.—Above dusky grey, striped with blackish brown; the top of the head from the bill to the nape grey; a whitish stripe from the eye to the nape; between the stripe and the grey on the crown black; a narrow chestnut ring round the neck, widening to a large patch on the sides of the chest, the patch bordered with black on its lower part; beneath, throat white; breast and belly ashy white; bill and feet light horn-colour: whole length 5·7 inches, wing 2·8, tail 2·2. Female similar, but duller in colour and a trifle smaller.
Hab. Central and South America.
The common, familiar, favourite Sparrow over a large portion of the South-American continent is the “Chingolo.” Darwin says that “it prefers inhabited places, but has not attained the air of domestication of the English Sparrow, which bird in habits and general appearance it resembles.” As it breeds in the fields on the ground, it can never be equally familiar with man, but in appearance it is like a refined copy of the burly English Sparrow—more delicately tinted, the throat being chestnut instead of black; the head smaller and better proportioned, and with the added distinction of a crest, which it lowers and elevates at all angles to express the various feelings affecting its busy little mind.