. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 164 Bulletin Contact behaviour in the Cuban Finch, Tiaris canora (Gmelin) by John H. Sparks Received 23rd February, 1964 The adults of the many avian species avoid sitting in contact with other conspecifics; this avoidance is maintained by aggression, and leads to the formation of individual distances. Some species do not show this kind of dispersion, and as the members of a flock are preparing to rest, they come. Plate I Allopreening in the Cuban Finch showing the ruming of the head feathers in the allo- preening invitation posture
. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 164 Bulletin Contact behaviour in the Cuban Finch, Tiaris canora (Gmelin) by John H. Sparks Received 23rd February, 1964 The adults of the many avian species avoid sitting in contact with other conspecifics; this avoidance is maintained by aggression, and leads to the formation of individual distances. Some species do not show this kind of dispersion, and as the members of a flock are preparing to rest, they come. Plate I Allopreening in the Cuban Finch showing the ruming of the head feathers in the allo- preening invitation posture of the male. together and sit flank to flank (clumping); this diurnal clumping may be seen in some tropical species chiefly the Psittacidae, Timaliinae, and Estrildidae. A bird which is clumping may spend some of the time in preening its neighbour (allopreening, Cullen, 1963) and I intend to refer to this complex of clumping and allopreening behaviour as "contact" behaviour. The four species of grassquit {Tiaris sp.) range from northern South America, Central America to Mexico and through the West Indies. They are placed in the sub-family Fringillinae, and since the palato-maxilliaries are unfused or incompletely fused, Tordoff (1954) considered them to be rather primitive; they may be closely related to the genus Melanospiza. All the grassquits have typical fringillid behaviour patterns, such as wing quivering in the hen's soliciting behaviour and all show courtship feeding (Goodwin, R., 1959). However, in many ways they resemble the Old World estrildids; the grassquits have a general waxbill-like comportment and the nest is domed: the latter feature may be an adaptation to a tropical habitat. The similarity to the members of the Estrildidae is also accentuated. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the or
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