VOLUME II.
LONDON: R. H. PORTER, 18 PRINCES STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE, W.
1889.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND VOLUME.
This volume contains our account of all the Orders of Birds met with within the Argentine Republic except the Passeres, which were treated of in the First Volume. It also comprises an Appendix and Index, and completes the work. The Introduction is issued with this, but is intended to be bound up with the first volume, and is paged to follow the contents of that volume.
The total number of species which we have thus assigned to the Argentine Avifauna is 434. To this list, no doubt, considerable additions will have to be made when the more remote provinces of the Republic have been explored. We trust that this work may at least serve to excite residents in Argentina to make fresh investigations, for we are quite aware how imperfect is the compilation now offered to the public.
It will be seen that in the following pages, as in the first volume, we have availed ourselves liberally of the information on Argentine birds contained in the writings of Dr. Burmeister, Mr. Barrows, and Mr. Gibson. To all of these gentlemen we wish to offer our most sincere thanks, together with apologies for the liberty we have taken. We have likewise to express our high estimation of the valuable notes which we have extracted from the published writings of the late Henry Durnford and Ernest William White, both most promising Naturalists, and both alike lost to Science at an early age. Nor must we omit to record our thanks to Hans, Graf von Berlepsch, of Münden, Mr. Walter B. Barrows, and Mr. Frank Withington, and other friends and correspondents who have aided us by information and by the loan of specimens.
To the Zoological Society of London and to Mr. Henry Seebohm we are likewise much indebted for the loan of the woodcuts of which impressions are contained in these volumes.
P. L. S. _February 1, 1889._
CONTENTS OF VOL. II.
Order II. MACROCHIRES.
Fam. XX. TROCHILIDÆ, or HUMMING-BIRDS. Page
230. _Oreotrochilus leucopleurus_, Gould. (White-sided Humming-bird.) 1
231. _Chætocercus burmeisteri_, Scl. (Burmeister's Humming-bird.) [Plate XI.] 2
232. _Sparganura sappho_ (Lesson). (Sappho Humming-bird.) 3
233. _Petasophora serrirostris_ (Vieill.). (Violet-eared Humming-bird.) 3
234. _Patagona gigas_ (Vieill.). (Giant Humming-bird.) 4
235. _Calliperidia furcifera_ (Shaw). (Angela Humming-bird.) 5
236. _Leucippus chionogaster_ (Tsch.). (White-breasted Humming-bird.) 7
237. _Leucochloris albicollis_ (Vieill.). (White-throated Humming-bird.) 7
238. _Chrysuronia ruficollis_ (Vieill.). (Golden-tailed Humming-bird.) 8
239. _Hylocharis sapphirina_ (Gm.). (Red-throated Humming-bird.) 8
240. _Chlorostilbon splendidus_ (Vieill.). (Glittering Humming-bird.) 9
Fam. XXI. CYPSELIDÆ, or SWIFTS.
241. _Hemiprocne zonaris_ (Shaw). (Ringed Spine-tailed Swift.) 11
Fam. XXII. CAPRIMULGIDÆ, or GOATSUCKERS.
242. _Podager nacunda_ (Vieill.). (Nacunda Goatsucker.) 12
243. _Chordeiles virginianus_ (Gm.). (Whip-poor-Will.) 13
244. _Antrostomus parvulus_ (Gould). (Little Goatsucker.) 14
245. _Stenopsis bifasciata_ (Gould). (Wing-banded Goatsucker.) 14
246. _Hydropsalis furcifera_ (Vieill.). (Fork-tailed Goatsucker.) [Plate XII.] 15
247. _Heleothreptus anomalus_ (Gould). (Short-winged Goatsucker.) 16
Order III. PICI.
Fam. XXIII. PICIDÆ, or WOODPECKERS.
248. _Campephilus boiæi_ (Wagl.). (Boie's Woodpecker.) 17
249. _Campephilus schulzi_ (Cab.). (Schulz's Woodpecker.) 18
250. _Dryocopus erythrops_ (Val.). (Red-faced Woodpecker.) 18
251. _Picus mixtus_, Bodd. (Varied Woodpecker.) 19
252. _Picus cactorum_, d'Orb. et Lafr. (Cactus Woodpecker.) 19
253. _Chloronerpes affinis_ (Wagl.). (Allied Woodpecker.) 20
254. _Chloronerpes frontalis_, Cab. (Red-fronted Woodpecker.) 20
255. _Chloronerpes aurulentus_ (Licht.). (Gold-backed Woodpecker.) 21
256. _Chloronerpes tucumanus_, Cab. (Tucuman Woodpecker.) 21
257. _Chrysoptilus cristatus_ (Vieill.). (Red-crested Woodpecker.) 21
258. _Leuconerpes candidus_ (Otto). (White-bellied Woodpecker.) 23
259. _Colaptes longirostris_, Cab. (Long-billed Woodpecker.) 23
260. _Colaptes agricola_ (Malh.). (Pampas Woodpecker.) 24
Order IV. COCCYGES.
Fam. XXIV. ALCEDINIDÆ, or KINGFISHERS.
261. _Ceryle torquata_ (Linn.). (Ringed Kingfisher.) 26
262. _Ceryle amazona_ (Lath.). (Amazonian Kingfisher.) 27
263. _Ceryle americana_ (Gm.). (Little Kingfisher.) 27
Fam. XXV. TROGONIDÆ, or TROGONS.
264. _Trogon variegatus_, Spix. (Purple-breasted Trogon.) 29
265. _Trogon surucura_, Vieill. (Azara's Trogon.) 29
Fam. XXVI. BUCCONIDÆ, or PUFF-BIRDS.
266. _Bucco maculatus_ (Gm.). (Spotted Puff-bird.) 30
Fam. XXVII. CUCULIDÆ, or CUCKOOS.
267. _Crotophaga ani_, Linn. (Black Ani.) 31
268. _Guira piririgua_ (Vieill.). (Guira Cuckoo.) 32
269. _Diplopterus nævius_ (Gm.). (Brown Cuckoo.) 35
270. _Piaya cayana_ (Linn.). (Chestnut Cuckoo.) 36
271. _Coccyzus americanus_ (Linn.). (Yellow-billed Cuckoo.) 37
272. _Coccyzus melanocoryphus_, Vieill. (Black-billed Cuckoo.) 38
273. _Coccyzus cinereus_, Vieill. (Cinereous Cuckoo.) [Plate XIII.] 38
274. _Coccyzus pumilus_, Strickl. (Dwarf Cuckoo.) 39
Fam. XXVIII. RHAMPHASTIDÆ, or TOUCANS.
275. _Rhamphastos toco_, Gm. (Toco Toucan.) 40
Order V. PSITTACI.
Fam. XXIX. PSITTACIDÆ, or PARROTS.
276. _Conurus patagonus_ (Vieill.). (Patagonian Parrot.) 41
277. _Conurus acuticaudatus_ (Vieill.). (Sharp-tailed Parrot.) 42
278. _Conurus mitratus_, Tsch. (Red-headed Parrot.) 43
279. _Conurus molinæ_, Mass. et Souanc. (Molina's Parrot.) [Plate XIV.] 43
280. _Bolborhynchus monachus_ (Bodd.). (Green Parrakeet.) 43
281. _Bolborhynchus aymara_ (d'Orb.). (Aymara Parrakeet.) [Plate XV.] 46
282. _Bolborhynchus rubrirostris_ (Burm.). (Red-billed Parrakeet.) 46
283. _Chrysotis vinacea_ (Max.). (Vinaceous Amazon.) 46
284. _Chrysotis æstiva_ (Linn.). (Blue-fronted Amazon.) 47
285. _Pionus maximiliani_ (Kuhl). (Prince Maximilian's Parrot.) 47
Order VI. STRIGES.
Fam. XXX. STRIGIDÆ, or BARN-OWLS.
286. _Strix flammea_, Linn. (Common Barn-Owl.) 48
Fam. XXXI. BUBONIDÆ, or OWLS.
287. _Asio brachyotus_ (Forst.). (Short-eared Owl.) 49
288. _Bubo virginianus_ (Gm.). (Virginian Owl.) 50
289. _Scops brasilianus_ (Gm.). (Choliba Owl.) 51
290. _Speotyto cunicularia_ (Mol.). (Burrowing-Owl.) 52
291. _Glaucidium nanum_ (King). (Pygmy Owl.) 56
Order VII. ACCIPITRES.
Fam. XXXII. FALCONIDÆ, or FALCONS.
292. _Circus cinereus_, Vieill. (Cinereous Harrier.) 57
293. _Circus macropterus_, Vieill. (Long-winged Harrier.) 58
294. _Asturina pucherani_, Verr. (Pucheran's Hawk.) 58
295. _Buteo swainsoni_, Bp. (Swainson's Buzzard.) [Plate XVI.] 59
296. _Buteo albicaudatus_, Vieill. (White-tailed Buzzard.) 61
297. _Buteo erythronotus_ (King). (Red-backed Buzzard.) 62
298. _Antenor unicinctus_ (Temm.). (One-banded Buzzard.) 63
299. _Heterospizias meridionalis_ (Lath.). (Brown Buzzard.) 63
300. _Geranoaëtus melanoleucus_ (Vieill.). (Chilian Eagle.) 64
301. _Harpyhaliaëtus coronatus_ (Vieill.). (Crowned Harpy.) 66
302. _Geranospizias cærulescens_ (Vieill.). (Grey Crane-Hawk.) 67
303. _Falco peregrinus_, Linn. (Peregrine Falcon.) 67
304. _Falco fusco-cærulescens_, Vieill. (Orange-chested Hobby.) 69
305. _Tinnunculus cinnamominus_ (Sw.). (Cinnamomeous Kestrel.) 69
306. _Elanus leucurus_ (Vieill.). (White-tailed Kite.) 71
307. _Rostrhamus sociabilis_ (Vieill.). (Sociable Marsh-Hawk.) 72
308. _Spiziapteryx circumcinctus_ (Kaup). (Spot-winged Falcon.) 73
309. _Milvago chimango_ (Vieill.). (Chimango Carrion-Hawk.) 74
310. _Polyborus tharus_ (Mol.). (Carancho Carrion-Hawk.) 81
Fam. XXXIII. CATHARTIDÆ, or CONDORS.
311. _Cathartes aura_ (Linn.). (Turkey-Vulture.) 89
312. _Cathartes atratus_ (Bartram). (Black Vulture.) 89
313. _Sarcorhamphus gryphus_ (Linn.). (Great Condor.) 90
Order VIII. STEGANOPODES.
Fam. XXXIV. PHALACROCORACIDÆ, or CORMORANTS.
314. _Phalacrocorax brasilianus_ (Gm.). (Brazilian Cormorant.) 91
Order IX. HERODIONES.
Fam. XXXV. ARDEIDÆ, or HERONS.
315. _Ardea cocoi_, Linn. (Cocoi Heron.) 93
316. _Ardea egretta_, Gm. (White Egret.) 98
317. _Ardea candidissima_, Gm. (Snowy Egret.) 99
318. _Ardea cærulea_, Linn. (Blue Heron.) 99
319. _Ardea sibilatrix_, Temm. (Whistling Heron.) 100
320. _Butorides cyanurus_ (Vieill.). (Little Blue Heron.) 101
321. _Ardetta involucris_ (Vieill.). (Variegated Heron.) [Plate XVII.] 101
322. _Tigrisoma marmoratum_ (Vieill.). (Marbled Tiger-Bittern.) 104
323. _Nycticorax obscurus_, Bp. (Dark Night-Heron.) 105
Fam. XXXVI. CICONIIDÆ, or STORKS.
324. _Mycteria americana_, Linn. (Jabiru.) 106
325. _Euxenura maguari_ (Gm.). (Maguari Stork.) 106
326. _Tantalus loculator_, Linn. (Wood-Ibis.) 108
Fam. XXXVII. PLATALEIDÆ, or IBISES.
327. _Plegadis guarauna_ (Linn.). (White-faced Ibis.) 109
328. _Theristicus caudatus_ (Bodd.). (Black-faced Ibis.) 110
329. _Harpiprion cærulescens_ (Vieill.). (Plumbeous Ibis.) 112
330. _Phimosus infuscatus_ (Licht.). (Whispering Ibis.) 113
331. _Ajaja rosea_, Reichenb. (Roseate Spoonbill.) 114
Fam. XXXVIII. PHOENICOPTERIDÆ, or FLAMINGOES.
332. _Phoenicopterus ignipalliatus_, Geoffr. et d'Orb. (Argentine Flamingo.) 117
333. _Phoenicopterus andinus_, Philippi. (Andean Flamingo.) 119
Order X. ANSERES.
Fam. XXXIX. PALAMEDEIDÆ, or SCREAMERS.
334. _Chauna chavaria_ (Linn.). (Crested Screamer.) 119
Fam. XL. ANATIDÆ, or DUCKS.
335. _Bernicla melanoptera_ (Eyton). (Andean Goose.) 122
336. _Bernicla dispar_, Ph. et Landb. (Barred Upland Goose.) 123
337. _Bernicla poliocephala_, Gray. (Ashy-headed Goose.) 124
338. _Cygnus nigricollis_, Gm. (Black-necked Swan.) [Plate XVIII.] 124
339. _Coscoroba candida_ (Vieill.). (Coscoroba Swan.) 126
340. _Dendrocygna fulva_ (Gm.). (Fulvous Tree-Duck.) 126
341. _Dendrocygna viduata_ (Linn.). (White-faced Tree-Duck.) 128
342. _Sarcidiornis carunculata_ (Licht.). (Crested Duck.) 128
343. _Cairina moschata_ (Linn.). (Muscovy Duck.) 129
344. _Heteronetta melanocephala_ (Vieill.). (Black-headed Duck.) 130
345. _Querquedula cyanoptera_ (Vieill.). (Blue-winged Teal.) 130
346. _Querquedula flavirostris_ (Vieill.). (Yellowed-billed Teal.) 131
347. _Querquedula versicolor_ (Vieill.). (Grey Teal.) 131
348. _Querquedula torquata_ (Vieill.). (Ring-necked Teal.) 132
349. _Querquedula brasiliensis_ (Gm.). (Brazilian Teal.) 133
350. _Dafila spinicauda_ (Vieill.). (Brown Pintail.) 134
351. _Dafila bahamensis_ (Linn.). (Bahama Pintail.) 135
352. _Mareca sibilatrix_ (Poepp.). (Chiloe Wigeon.) 135
353. _Spatula platalea_ (Vieill.). (Red Shoveller.) 136
354. _Metopiana peposaca_ (Vieill.). (Rosy-billed Duck.) 137
355. _Erismatura ferruginea_, Eyton. (Rusty Lake-Duck.) 138
356. _Nomonyx dominicus_ (Linn.). (White-winged Lake-Duck.) 138
Order XI. COLUMBÆ.
Fam. XLI. COLUMBIDÆ, or PIGEONS.
357. _Columba picazuro_, Temm. (Picazuro Pigeon.) 139
358. _Columba maculosa_, Temm. (Spot-winged Pigeon.) 140
359. _Zenaida maculata_ (Vieill.). (Spotted Dove.) 141
360. _Metriopelia melanoptera_ (Mol.). (Black-winged Dove.) 142
361. _Metriopelia aymara_ (Knip et Prév.). (Aymara Dove.) 142
362. _Columbula picui_ (Temm.). (Picui Dove.) 143
363. _Chamæpelia talpacoti_ (Temm.). (Talpacoti Dove.) 144
364. _Engyptila chalcauchenia_ (Scl. et Salv.). (Solitary Pigeon.) 144
Order XII. GALLINÆ.
Fam. XLII. CRACIDÆ, or CURASSOWS.
365. _Crax sclateri_, G. R. Gray. (Sclater's Curassow.) 145
366. _Penelope obscura_, Temm. (Dark Guan.) 146
367. _Pipile cumanensis_ (Jacq.). (White-headed Guan.) 146
368. _Ortalis canicollis_, Wagl. (Hoary-necked Guan.) 147
Order XIV. GERANOMORPHÆ.
Fam. XLIII. RALLIDÆ, or RAILS.
369. _Rallus maculatus_, Bodd. (Spotted Rail.) [Plate XIX.] 148
370. _Rallus antarcticus_, King. (Antarctic Rail.) 148
371. _Rallus rhytirhynchus_, Vieill. (Black Rail.) 149
372. _Rallus nigricans_, Vieill. (Plumbeous Rail.) 150
373. _Aramides ypecaha_ (Vieill.). (Ypecaha Rail.) 150
374. _Porzana leucopyrrha_ (Vieill.). (Red-and-White Crake.) 154
375. _Porzana salinasi_ (Philippi). (Spot-winged Crake.) 155
376. _Porzana notata_ (Gould). (Marked Crake.) 155
377. _Porphyriops melanops_ (Vieill.). (Little Waterhen.) 156
378. _Gallinula galeata_ (Licht.). (American Waterhen.) 156
379. _Fulica armillata_, Vieill. (Red-gartered Coot.) 157
380. _Fulica leucopyga_, Hartl. (Red-fronted Coot.) 157
381. _Fulica leucoptera_, Vieill. (Yellow-billed Coot.) 158
Fam. XLIV. ARAMIDÆ, or COURLANS.
382. _Aramus scolopaceus_ (Gm.). (Southern Courlan.) 159
Fam. XLV. CARIAMIDÆ, or CARIAMAS.
383. _Cariama cristata_ (Linn.). (Crested Cariama.) 161
384. _Chunga burmeisteri_ (Hartl.). (Burmeister's Cariama.) 162
Order XV. LIMICOLÆ.
Fam. XLVI. PARRIDÆ, or JACANAS.
385. _Parra jacana_, Linn. (The Jacana.) 163
Fam. XLVII. CHARADRIIDÆ, or PLOVERS.
386. _Vanellus cayennensis_ (Gm.). (Cayenne Lapwing.) 165
387. _Charadrius dominicus_, Müller. (American Golden Plover.) 170
388. _Eudromias modesta_ (Licht.). (Winter Plover.) 171
389. _Ægialitis falklandica_ (Lath.). (Patagonian Sand-Plover.) 172
390. _Ægialitis collaris_ (Vieill.). (Azara's Sand-Plover.) 173
391. _Oreophilus ruficollis_ (Wagl.). (Slender-billed Plover.) 174
392. _Hæmatopus palliatus_, Temm. (American Oyster-catcher.) 176
Fam. XLVIII. THINOCORIDÆ, or SEED-SNIPES.
393. _Thinocorus rumicivorus_, Eschsch. (Common Seed-Snipe.) 176
394. _Thinocorus orbignyanus_, Geoffr. et Less. (D'Orbigny's Seed-Snipe.) 178
Fam. XLIX. SCOLOPACIDÆ, or SNIPES.
395. _Himantopus brasiliensis_, Brehm. (Brazilian Stilt.) 179
396. _Phalaropus wilsoni_, Sabine. (Wilson's Phalarope.) 180
397. _Gallinago paraguaiæ_ (Vieill.). (Paraguay Snipe.) 181
398. _Rhynchæa semicollaris_ (Vieill.). (Painted Snipe.) 182
399. _Tringa maculata_, Vieill. (Pectoral Sandpiper.) 183
400. _Tringa bairdi_ (Coues). (Baird's Sandpiper.) 184
401. _Tringa fuscicollis_, Vieill. (Bonaparte's Sandpiper.) 185
402. _Calidris arenaria_ (Linn.). (Sanderling.) 186
403. _Totanus melanoleucus_ (Gm.). (Greater Yellowshank.) 186
404. _Totanus flavipes_ (Gm.). (Lesser Yellowshank.) 187
405. _Rhyacophilus solitarius_ (Wils.). (Solitary Sandpiper.) 188
406. _Actiturus bartramius_ (Wils.). (Bartram's Sandpiper.) 189
407. _Tryngites rufescens_ (Vieill.). (Buff-breasted Sandpiper.) 190
408. _Limosa hæmastica_ (Linn.). (Hudsonian Godwit.) 191
409. _Numenius borealis_ (Forst.). (Esquimo Whimbrel.) 192
Order XVI. GAVIÆ.
Fam. L. LARIDÆ, or GULLS.
410. _Rhynchops melanura_, Sw. (Black-tailed Skimmer.) 193
411. _Phaëthusa magnirostris_ (Licht.). (Great-billed Tern.) 194
412. _Sterna maxima_, Bodd. (Great Tern.) 195
413. _Sterna trudeauii_, Aud. (Trudeau's Tern.) 195
414. _Sterna hirundinacea_, Less. (Cassin's Tern.) 196
415. _Sterna superciliaris_, Vieill. (Eyebrowed Tern.) 197
416. _Larus dominicanus_, Licht. (Dominican Gull.) 197
417. _Larus maculipennis_, Licht. (Spot-winged Gull.) 198
418. _Larus cirrhocephalus_, Vieill. (Grey-capped Gull.) 201
Order XVII. PYGOPODES.
Fam. LI. PODICIPEDIDÆ, or GREBES.
419. _Æchmophorus major_ (Bodd.). (Great Grebe.) 202
420. _Podiceps caliparæus_, Less. (Bright-cheeked Grebe.) 204
421. _Podiceps rollandi_, Quoy et Gaim. (Rolland's Grebe.) 204
422. _Tachybaptes dominicus_ (Linn.). (American Dabchick.) 205
423. _Podilymbus podiceps_ (Linn.). (Thick-billed Grebe.) 206
Order XVIII. IMPENNES.
Fam. LII. APTENODYTIDÆ, or PENGUINS.
424. _Spheniscus magellanicus_ (Forst.). (Jackass Penguin.) 206
Order XIX. CRYPTURI.
Fam. LIII. TINAMIDÆ, or TINAMOUS.
425. _Crypturus obsoletus_, Temm. (Brown Tinamou.) 207
426. _Crypturus tataupa_, Temm. (Tataupa Tinamou.) 208
427. _Rhynchotus rufescens_ (Temm.). (Great Tinamou.) 209
428. _Nothoprocta pentlandi_ (Gray). (Pentland's Tinamou.) 210
429. _Nothoprocta cinerascens_ (Burm.). (Cinereous Tinamou.) 210
430. _Nothura maculosa_ (Temm.). (Spotted Tinamou.) 211
431. _Nothura darwini_, Gray. (Darwin's Tinamou.) [Plate XX.] 213
432. _Calodromas elegans_ (d'Orb. et Geoffr.). (Martineta Tinamou.) 214
Order XX. STRUTHIONES.
Fam. LIV. RHEIDÆ, or RHEAS.
433. _Rhea americana_, Lath. (Common Rhea.) 216
434. _Rhea darwini_, Gould. (Darwin's Rhea.) 219
APPENDIX 221
I. List of the principal Authorities upon the Ornithology of the Argentine Republic referred to in the present Work 221
II. List of some of the principal Localities where Collections have been made, mentioned in this Work 231
INDEX 233
LIST OF PLATES IN VOL. II.
Plate Page
XI. CHÆTOCERCUS BURMEISTERI 2
XII. HYDROPSALIS FURCIFERA 15
XIII. COCCYZUS CINEREUS 38
XIV. CONURUS MOLINÆ 43
XV. BOLBORHYNCHUS AYMARA 46
XVI. BUTEO SWAINSONI 59
XVII. ARDETTA INVOLUCRIS 101
XVIII. CYGNUS NIGRICOLLIS 124
XIX. RALLUS MACULATUS 148
XX. NOTHURA DARWINI 213
ARGENTINE ORNITHOLOGY.
Order II. MACROCHIRES.
Fam. XX. TROCHILIDÆ, or HUMMING-BIRDS.
Of the great American family Trochilidæ, which, according to the most recent authorities, contains about 450 species, eleven members have been ascertained to occur within the limits of the Argentine Republic. But of these only three (_Calliperidia furcifera_, _Hylocharis sapphirina_, and _Chlorostilbon splendidus_) reach the neighbourhood of Buenos Ayres, where they occur as summer visitors. The remaining eight have been met with only in the northern and western provinces of Argentina. Of these two (_Oreotrochilus leucopleurus_ and _Patagona gigas_) are also found in Chili, the others are Bolivian and South-Brazilian species.
230. OREOTROCHILUS LEUCOPLEURUS, Gould.
(WHITE-SIDED HUMMING-BIRD.)
+Oreotrochilus leucopleurus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 81; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 615 (Catamarca); _Elliot, Syn. Troch._ p. 36; _Gould, Mon. Troch._ ii. pl. 71.
_Description._--Head, upper surface, and wings greyish olive-brown, passing into dull coppery green on the upper tail-coverts; two central tail-feathers and outer one bronzy green, the others white, narrowly edged externally with brown; throat shining green, bordered below by a band of black with bluish reflexions; flanks olive-brown; breast and sides of belly white; centre of belly black with steel-blue reflexions; under tail-coverts olive: whole length 5·0 inches, wings 2·7, tail 2·1. _Female_ above like male; beneath white, throat densely spotted with brown; flanks brownish.
_Hab._ Chili and Northern Argentina.
White obtained a single specimen of this Humming-bird in September 1880, at Fuerte de Andalgala, in Catamarca. It is a well-known species in Chili, where, according to Gould, "it inhabits the sheltered valleys of the Andes, just below the line of perpetual congelation."
231. CHÆTOCERCUS BURMEISTERI, Scl.
(BURMEISTER'S HUMMING-BIRD.)
[Plate XI.]
+Chætocercus burmeisteri+, _Scl. P. Z. S._ 1887, p. 639.
_Description._--Bill straight, entirely black and as long as the head; whole upper part of the body of a dark green metallic colour, except the wings, which are black; the small feathers of the throat on the under jaw are whitish with a darker spot in the middle; there begins on the throat the crimson-red bilateral beard, which is composed on both sides of three rows of very small feathers, these becoming somewhat larger in the middle of the beard and terminating with two ranges of feathers in the exterior half part. Many of these feathers are shining metallic green in certain positions. A white spot behind the eyes descends from there to the breast, which is also whitish, but with a dark spot on every feather, causing a greyish appearance in the middle of the breast. The hinder half of the breast and the belly are black, but the anal portion is white, as also the sides of the body, except the thighs, which are black. The inferior feathers behind the anal region are clear yellow-brown, but those in the middle have a green metallic spot. The tail is composed of eight feathers; the two exterior on each side are more than an inch long, very small but of equal size in the whole extent, and rounded at the tip, not pointed. The exterior rectrix is entirely black; the second has a clear brown stripe on the inside border. The third feather of each side is very short, only half an inch long and more than eight lines shorter than the exterior; its colour is entirely black. The fourth feathers on each side, that is in the middle of the tail, are shorter than the third pair and partly covered by the coverts: they are of metallic green colour like the coverts.
_Hab._ Tucuman.
The only known specimen of this species was procured in the Valle de Tafi, in the mountains of Tucuman, by Herr Schulz, and is now in the National Museum of Buenos Ayres. This species is nearly allied to _C. bombus_, Gould (Mon. Troch. Suppl. p. 45, pl. 32), but differs in the form of the tail. The figure (Plate XI.) is taken from a watercolour sketch of this specimen kindly sent to us by Dr. Burmeister.
232. SPARGANURA SAPPHO (Lesson).
(SAPPHO HUMMING-BIRD.)
+Sparganura sappho+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 86; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 615 (Catamarca). +Cometes sparganurus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 449 (Mendoza, Catamarca, Tucuman); _Gould, Mon. Troch._ iii. pl. 174. +Sappho sparganura+, _Elliot, Syn. Troch._ p. 154; _Salvin, Ibis_, 1880, p. 360 (Tucuman, Salta).
_Description._--Head, upper back, wing-coverts, and under surface shining bronze-green; lower back and upper tail-coverts shining crimson; tail dark brown at base, remaining part fiery orange, tipped with black; basal half of outer web of external rectrices pale brown; wings purplish brown; under tail-coverts light brown with purplish centres; bill and feet black: whole length 6·2 inches, wing 2·5, tail 4·1. _Female_: crown and back greenish brown; throat and sides of face buffy white, spotted with green; rest of under surface whitish, with large spots of green on the flanks; rump and upper tail-coverts shining crimson; central rectrices crimson, lateral rectrices brownish glossed with crimson; outer web of external rectrix white; bill and feet black.
_Hab._ Bolivia and North-western Argentina.
Dr. Burmeister tells us that the Sappho Humming-bird is not uncommon in Mendoza, Catamarca, and Tucuman, but keeps to the mountains, and does not descend on to the plains. In the neighbourhood of Mendoza it specially affects the flowers of _Loranthus cuneifolius_; at Tucuman Dr. Burmeister found it also on the orange-blossoms.
Durnford obtained specimens of this species at Tucuman and Salta in the month of June.
White (P. Z. S. 1882, p. 615) gives us the following notes on its habits:--
"I have met with these Humming-birds scattered, although somewhat sparsely, over the upper provinces of the Republic, feeding principally upon _Nicotiana glauca_, the Quichua name for which is 'palan-palan.' They follow it southwards as it flowers, even as far as Cordoba; but their true habitat is the Andean region. In Quichua, Humming-birds generally are called 'Tuminicos.' When these birds are poised in front of a flower with wings and tail expanded in the full sunshine, they offer the most brilliant feathery picture imaginable; and as they dart off their flight is so speedy that the eye cannot follow them."
233. PETASOPHORA SERRIROSTRIS (Vieill.).
(VIOLET-EARED HUMMING-BIRD.)
+Petasophora serrirostris+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 89; _Elliot, Syn. Troch._ p. 52; _Gould, Mon. Troch._ iv. pl. 223. +Petasophora crispa+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 447 (Tucuman).
_Description._--Head, upper surface, wing-coverts, flanks, and abdomen dark yellowish green; ear-coverts rich violet-blue; wings purplish brown; tail dark bluish green, crossed near the tip by a broad chalybeate band, beyond which the tips are of a lighter bluish green; throat and upper part of the breast luminous green; across the breast a gorget of shining bluish green; vent and under tail-coverts pure white; bill black; feet blackish brown: whole length 3·8 inches, wings 2·8, tail 1·7. _Female_ similar, but not so bright.
_Hab._ S.E. Brazil.
Dr. Burmeister informs us that he met with this Humming-bird in multitudes in the month of September among the orange-blossoms in the Quintas of Tucuman. It is a well-known species in South-east Brazil, but we know of no other record of its occurrence so far south as Tucuman.
234. PATAGONA GIGAS (Vieill.).
(GIANT HUMMING-BIRD.)
+Patagona gigas+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 89; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 615 (Catamarca); _Elliot, Syn. Troch._ p. 67; _Gould, Mon. Troch._ iv. pl. 232.
_Description._--Head and upper surface pale brown, glossed with green; wings and tail darker and more green; basal portion of the shafts of the lateral rectrices white; patch on the rump white; upper tail-coverts edged with white; breast mottled brown and buff; throat and abdomen rusty red; under tail-coverts white, with brownish centre spots; bill blackish brown; feet brown: whole length 7·0 inches, wing 4·9, tail 3·4. _Female_ similar but smaller.
_Hab._ Andes of Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru, Chili, Patagonia, and Northern Argentina.
White seems to be the only observer who has met with this Humming-bird within the limits of the Argentine Republic. He obtained a pair at Andalgala, in Catamarca, in September 1880, and wrote the following notes on the habits of the species:--
"This magnificent bird, which the natives say they have never seen before at Andalgala, was shot on the 'palan-palan,' the usual plant that it frequents at this season. It appeared here just after a two days' severe snow-storm, so that in all probability it had been driven down hither by it.
"It is exceedingly powerful on the wing, and flutters in front of a flower, sipping the nectar, exactly as the smaller species of this family. They have a most peculiar, zig-zag, jerky flight; which, when making a long detour for any particular spot, becomes undulating.
"They are without doubt partially insect-eaters, as I have not only observed their crops full of flies and small beetles, but have also seen them pursue and catch them in the air, with the motions of a Flycatcher.
"They perch on some bare branch of a plant, which they entirely appropriate, driving off every other bird that dares to approach, and every now and then visit all its flowers to sip the sweets. The large humble-bees, however, cause them some trouble, as they likewise are addicted to sipping nectar; these the _P. gigas_ attacks with all its force, and by fluttering its wings, rushing at, pushing and pecking them, succeeds in ridding the spot of their presence.
"The note of this bird is similar to the chirp of a young Sparrow, but much stronger.
"These birds, like animals generally in the Argentine Republic, take no notice of a person mounted, but instantly disappear when a foot-passenger approaches; so that as I was on muleback I was enabled to ride close up to and observe them.
"The seat of _P. gigas_ is so firm and close to the branch, that its tiny feet are invisible; the breast is puffed out, and its head in continued motion from one side to the other with a jerky movement. When disturbed it darts off around with a rough jerky flight for a minute or so, and then endeavours to return, but, if still interfered with, seeks a dry twig at the top of some neighbouring tree on which to alight. Its poise when suspended, sipping at the flowers, is heavy and laboured, and the motion of its large wings, although rapid, is perceptible to the eye; and it never remains more than half a minute in this position, when it retires to a branch to rest for at least five minutes, perching, with its head towards the sun and its beak slightly elevated."
235. CALLIPERIDIA FURCIFERA (Shaw).
(ANGELA HUMMING-BIRD.)
+Calliperidia furcifera+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 90; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 184 (Buenos Ayres). +Heliomaster furcifer+, _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 616 (Catamarca); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 21 (Entrerios); _Elliot, Syn. Troch._ p. 86. +Ornismya angelæ+, _d'Orb. et Lafr. Syn. Av._ ii. p. 28 (Corrientes). +Calliperidia angelæ+, _Elliot, Ibis_, 1877, p. 137. +Heliomaster angelæ+, _Gould, Mon. Troch._ iv. pl. 263; _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 448; _id. P. Z. S._ 1865, p. 466; _id. Anales Mus. B. A._ i. p. 70. +Campylopterus inornatus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 447. (jr.).
_Description._--Crown of head luminous metallic green, changing in some lights to aquamarine, in others to bluish green, and in others to golden green; all the upper surface and wing-coverts golden green, the golden hue predominating on the lower part of the back; wings purplish brown; tail purplish black, glossed with dark green; behind the eye a spot of white, and on the cheeks a streak of grey; centre of throat rich metallic purplish crimson, on each side of which is a series of elongated feathers of a rich deep metallic blue; under surface deep green, passing into rich blue on the middle of the body; tuft on each side and vent white; under tail-coverts green, fringed with white; bill black; feet blackish brown: whole length 5·2 inches, wing 2·3, tail 1·7. _Female_: the whole of the upper surface golden bronze, inclining to grey on the crown; tail green, deepening into black towards the extremity, and a spot of white at the tip of the three outer feathers of each side; wings purplish brown; under surface grey, fading into white on the throat and middle of belly.
_Hab._ S. Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.
Of the three Humming-birds which visit the vicinity of Buenos Ayres in the summer months, Mr. Durnford tells us this is the rarest. It is occasionally seen in the riverain wood, and like the other two (_Hylocharis sapphirina_ and _Chlorostilbon splendidus_) may generally be found hovering over the flowers of the Ceiba-tree--a species of _Erythrina_.
Further to the north this species would seem to be more abundant. Dr. Burmeister met with it near Tucuman and Paraná, and at one time described the young birds obtained in the latter locality as of a distinct species (_Campylopterus inornatus_), an error which he subsequently corrected (_cf._ P. Z. S. 1864, p. 466). White procured it in the city of Catamarca in August 1880.
Mr. Barrows has published the following interesting account of his observations on this species in Entrerios (Auk, 1882, p. 21):--
"Early in September, at Concepcion, when the orange-trees are just whitening with blossoms, these magnificent Humming-birds arrive from the north, and may occasionally be seen about the orange-trees in any garden, as well as about blossoming trees elsewhere. The males seemed for some reason to be much less abundant than the females, hardly more than a dozen being seen in an entire season. They probably nest in November and December, and leave for the north again in February or March. A nearly finished nest, found November 17, was very similar to that of our own Ruby-throat (_Trochilus colubris_) but larger, and was built in the compound fork of a large limb at a height of over 25 feet from the ground. It was deserted soon after, perhaps as a result of my examination. Ten days later another nest was found saddled on the topmost horizontal limb of a dead and moss-grown stub; only about seven feet from the ground, and exposed to the full force of the sun. This nest contained two eggs nearly ready to hatch. Both nests were beautifully covered with lichens, and the last was lined with the finest of vegetable down. The female made several angry rushes at me before the nest was touched, but as soon as she saw that it was discovered became so shy that it was difficult to secure her. The male was not seen at all. I once saw a bird of this species attack and put to rout a wild dove which passed near it while feeding, and though the dove made every effort to escape, the Hummer not only kept up with it easily, but darted above and below it as well, and finally both went out of sight in the distance together."
236. LEUCIPPUS CHIONOGASTER (Tsch.).
(WHITE-BREASTED HUMMING-BIRD.)
+Leucippus chionogaster+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 91; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 616 (Catamarca); _Elliot, Syn. Troch._ p. 199; _Gould, Mon. Troch._ v. pl. 290.
_Description._--Head, upper surface, wing-coverts, and flanks bronzy green; throat and whole lower surface white; wings purplish brown; central tail-feathers bronzy green, lateral dull bronzy brown on the outer webs; inner webs and shafts white, the inner webs clouded with bronzy brown in the centre; bill black, lower mandible paler at the base: whole length 4·2 inches, wing 2·1, tail 1·3. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ Peru, Bolivia, and Northern Argentina.
White obtained examples of this species at Fuerte de Andalgala, in Catamarca, in September 1880. They were feeding on the flowers of the "Idiondilla," which is one of the "Humming-bird-plants" of that district. "They are very swift and wild in their movements," he tells us, and "make a very loud hum," louder in fact than any other species with which he was acquainted.
237. LEUCOCHLORIS ALBICOLLIS (Vieill.).
(WHITE-THROATED HUMMING-BIRD.)
+Leucochloris albicollis+, _Gould, Mon. Troch._ v. pl. 291; _Elliot, Syn. Troch._ p. 200. +Thaumatias albicollis+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 448 (Tucuman).
_Description._--Head, all the upper surface, wing-coverts, chin and sides of the neck, abdomen and flanks deep shining grass-green; on the centre of throat and breast a large patch of white; lower part of abdomen and under tail-coverts white; wings purplish brown; two middle tail-feathers deep shining grass-green, the remainder bluish black, the three outer ones tipped with white; upper mandible black; basal two thirds of the lower mandible fleshy, apical third brown; feet brown: whole length 4·2 inches, wing 2·3, tail 1·4. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ S.E. Brazil, Paraguay, and N. Argentina.
Dr. Burmeister states that this species is found near Tucuman in company with _Calliperidia furcifera_ and _Petasophora serrirostris_; but we have no other authority for its occurrence within the limits of the Argentine Republic.
238. CHRYSURONIA RUFICOLLIS (Vieill.).
(GOLDEN-TAILED HUMMING-BIRD.)
+Chrysuronia ruficollis+, _Berlepsch, J. f. O._ 1887, p. 18. +Chrysuronia chrysura+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 93; _Elliot, Syn. Troch._ p. 169 (Arg. rep.), _Gould, Monogr. Troch._ v. pl. 329.
_Description._--Head, all the upper surface, wings, and tail-coverts of a golden hue, inclining to brown on the head; wings purplish brown; tail of a very rich golden lustre both above and beneath; chin buff; under surface grey, washed with a golden hue, which is richest on the flanks; vent and thighs white; under tail-coverts grey, with a slight golden lustre; bill fleshy, red at the base of both mandibles and dark at the tip; feet brown: whole length 4·2 inches, wing 2·2, tail 1·2. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ S. Brazil, Paraguay, and N. Argentina.
Hans v. Berlepsch has lately shown that Azara described this species under the designation "_Picaflor cola de topacio_," and that it must consequently bear the name _ruficollis_ of Vieillot, instead of _chrysura_ of Lesson, by which it is more commonly known. It visits the more northern portion of the Argentine Republic, and was obtained in the vicinity of Buenos Ayres by Hudson at Conchitas, and by Durnford at Punta Lara. The British Museum contains specimens from both these localities.
239. HYLOCHARIS SAPPHIRINA (Gm.).
(RED-THROATED HUMMING-BIRD.)
+Hylocharis sapphirina+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 93; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 184 (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 22 (Entrerios); _Elliot, Syn. Troch._ p. 236; _Gould, Mon. Troch._ v. pl. 342.
_Description._--Head, upper surface and under wing-coverts, flanks and abdomen rich deep shining green; chin rufous chestnut; fore part of the neck and breast rich sapphirine blue, with violet reflexions; upper tail-coverts bronzy brown; tail-feathers chestnut, the two centre ones with a bronzy hue, the remainder edged with blackish brown; wings purple-brown; under tail-coverts light chestnut; bill fleshy red, except at the point, which is black; feet brown: whole length 3·5 inches, wing 2·2, tail 1·2. _Female_: upper surface green as in the male, crown approaching to brown, throat pale rufous; only a trace of the blue on the throat; under surface much paler, fading into white on the centre of the abdomen; tail-feathers dark brown, the lateral ones tipped with greyish, and the middle feathers glossed with deep bronze.
_Hab._ Southern Brazil, Paraguay, and Northern Argentina.
The Red-throated Humming-bird is abundant in the woods along the Plata river, and ranges, I believe, fifty or sixty miles south of Buenos Ayres city. Outside of the littoral woods it is very rarely met with. The only nest I have found was in my own garden, and was placed on a horizontal branch. The female continued sitting on the nest, which contained two eggs, even when I placed my hand almost touching it; the male bird in the mean time exhibiting the greatest anxiety, and hovering so near as almost to brush my face with its wings.
240. CHLOROSTILBON SPLENDIDUS (Vieill.).
(GLITTERING HUMMING-BIRD.)
+Chlorostilbon splendidus+, _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877 p. 184 (Buenos Ayres); _Salvin, Ibis_, 1880, p. 360 (Salta); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 616 (Catamarca); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 22 (Entrerios); _Elliot, Ibis_, 1877, p. 136; _id. Syn. Troch._ p. 244. +Ornismya aureoventris+, _d'Orb. et Lafr. Syn. Av._ ii. p. 28 (Corrientes). +Chlorostilbon aureiventris+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 94. +Hylocharis bicolor+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 448 (Mendoza, Paraná, Tucuman). +Chlorostilbon phaethon+, _Gould, Mon. Troch._ v. pl. 354.
_Description._--Head, all the upper surface, and wing-coverts rich golden bronze, but inclining to green on the upper tail-coverts, wings purplish brown; tail black, glossed with deep green; throat and breast glittering emerald-green, merging into glittering coppery bronze on the sides of the neck and abdomen; under tail-coverts green; bill fleshy red at the base, with a darker tip; feet blackish: whole length 3·5 inches, wing 2·2, tail 1·3. _Female_ bronzy green above and grey beneath, washed with bronze on the flanks; wings purplish brown; tail bluish black, the two lateral feathers tipped with greyish white.
_Hab._ South Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.
The Glittering Humming-bird appears in the vicinity of Buenos Ayres in September, and later in the spring is found everywhere on the pampas where there are plantations, but it is never seen on the treeless plains. Its sudden appearance in considerable numbers in plantations on the pampas, where there are flowers to which it is partial, like those of the acacia-tree, and its just as sudden departure when the flowers have fallen, have led me to conclude that its migration extends much further south, probably into mid-Patagonia. Like most Humming-birds it is an exquisitely beautiful little creature, in its glittering green mantle; and in its aerial life and swift motions a miracle of energy. To those who have seen the Humming-bird in a state of nature all descriptions of its appearance and movements must seem idle. In the life-habits of the Trochilidæ there is a singular monotony; and the Glittering Humming-bird differs little in its customs from other species that have been described. It is extremely pugnacious; the males meet to fight in the air, and rapidly ascend, revolving round each other, until when at a considerable height they suddenly separate and dart off in opposite directions. Occasionally two or three are seen flashing by, pursuing each other, with such velocity that even the Swift's flight, which is said to cover four hundred miles an hour, seems slow in comparison. This species also possesses the habit of darting towards a person and hovering bee-like for some time close to his face. It also flies frequently into a house, at window or door, but does not, like birds of other kinds, become confused on such occasions, and is much too lively to allow its retreat to be cut off. It feeds a great deal on minute spiders, and is fond of exploring the surfaces of mud and brick walls, where it is seen deftly inserting its slender crimson bill into the small spider-holes in search of prey. The nest, like that of most humming-birds, is a small, beautifully-made structure, composed of a variety of materials held closely together with spiders' webs, and is placed on a branch, or in a fork, or else suspended from slender dropping vines or twigs. Sometimes the nest is suspended to the thatch overhanging the eaves of a cottage, for except where persecuted the bird is quite fearless of man's presence. The eggs are two, and white.
Besides the little creaking chirp uttered at short intervals while flying or hovering, this species has a set song, composed of five or six monotonous squeaking notes, uttered in rapid succession when the bird is perched.
Dr. Burmeister met with this Humming-bird at Mendoza, Paraná, and Tucuman, and says it is the commonest species in La Plata, and easily recognizable by its red bill.
Mr. Durnford also pronounces this species to be the commonest Humming-bird in the province of Buenos Ayres, and "abundant in the summer." It is not usual to meet with them in the winter; but Durnford saw a single specimen in a sheltered garden in the beginning of June. This Humming-bird feeds principally, he tells us, on the flowers of the Ceiba-tree, but not exclusively on honey, for the stomach of a specimen examined contained fragments of minute Coleoptera.
During his last journey Durnford obtained examples of this species near Salta; and White found it very abundant and breeding near Catamarca in the month of September.
According to Mr. Barrows the Glittering Humming-bird is also very common in Entrerios; he writes as follows:--"Very abundant at Concepcion in summer, arriving from the north early in September and departing again in April. Though found everywhere among flowers, they are particularly partial to open ground, flowery fields, gardens, &c., and in October it was not uncommon to have six or eight in sight at once."
Fam. XXI. CYPSELIDÆ, or SWIFTS.
The cosmopolitan family of Swifts, as far as is yet known, represented by one species only in the Argentine Republic. This is a fine large form of wide distribution, which extends over most of Southern and Central America.
241. HEMIPROCNE ZONARIS (Shaw).
(RINGED SPINE-TAILED SWIFT.)
+Hemiprocne zonaris+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 95. +Acanthylis collaris+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 449 (Mendoza).
_Description._--Black, glossed with bronzy; a white collar round the neck, rather broader in front; tail spiny, slightly forked: whole length 8·5 inches, wing 7·5, tail 2·8. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ Central and South America down to Argentina.
Dr. Burmeister observed specimens of this fine large Spine-tailed Swift near the Sierra of Mendoza in December and the following month.
Fam. XXII. CAPRIMULGIDÆ, or GOATSUCKERS.
Nearly fifty different species of the singular nocturnal birds commonly known as "Goatsuckers" are found in the Neotropical Region. They are most numerous within the tropics, where insect-life is more abundant, but also occur more sparingly in temperate latitudes. Six of them have been recorded as having been met with within the limits assigned to this work.
The Goatsuckers generally take their insect-prey on the wing late in the evening; but many of them often alight on the ground, and usually nest there or in hollow trees.
242. PODAGER NACUNDA (Vieill.).
(NACUNDA GOATSUCKER.)
+Podager nacunda+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 95; _iid. P. Z. S._ 1868, p. 142 (Buenos Ayres); _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 449 (Paraná); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 24 (Entrerios, Bahia Blanca).
_Description._--Above brown with dense black vermiculations and occasional blotches; wings black, with a broad white cross bar across the base of the primaries; secondaries and coverts like the back; tail above like the back, beneath grey with blackish cross bands; four outer tail-feathers broadly tipped with white: beneath, breast brown variegated with black, as above; chin fulvous; band across the throat and whole belly and crissum white; bill black; feet pale brown: whole length 11·0 inches, wing 9·5, tail 4·9. _Female_ similar, but without the white ends to the tail-feathers.
_Hab._ South America.
The specific name of this Goatsucker is from the Guaraní word _Ñacundá_, which Azara tells us is the Indian nickname for any person with a very large mouth. In the Argentine country it has several names, being called _Dormilon_ (Sleepy-head) or _Duerme-duerme_ (Sleep-sleep), also _Gallina ciega_ (blind hen). It is a large handsome bird, and differs from its congeners in being gregarious, and in never perching on trees or entering woods. It is an inhabitant of the open pampas. In Buenos Ayres, and also in Paraguay, according to Azara, it is a summer visitor, arriving at the end of September and leaving at the end of February. In the love season the male is sometimes heard uttering a song or call, with notes of a hollow mysterious character; at other times they are absolutely silent, except when disturbed in the daytime, and then each bird when taking flight emits the syllable _kuf_ in a hollow voice. When flushed the bird rushes away with a wild zigzag flight, close to the ground, then suddenly drops like a stone, disappearing at the same moment from sight as effectively as if the earth had swallowed it up, so perfect is the protective resemblance in the colouring of the upper plumage to the ground. In the evening they begin to fly about earlier than most _Caprimulgi_, hawking after insects like swallows, skimming over the surface of the ground and water with a swift, irregular flight; possibly the habit of sitting in open places exposed to the full glare of the sun has made them somewhat less nocturnal than other species that seek the shelter of thick woods or herbage during the hours of light.
The Nacunda breeds in October, and makes no nest, but lays two eggs on a scraped place on the open plain. Mr. Dalgleish says of the eggs:--"They are oval-shaped, and resemble much in appearance those of the Nightjar, except that the markings, which are similar in character to those of the latter, are of a reddish-brown or port-wine colour."
After the breeding-season they are sometimes found in flocks of forty or fifty individuals, and will spend months on the same spot, returning to it in equal numbers every year. One summer a flock of about two hundred individuals frequented a meadow near my house, and one day I observed them rise up very early in the evening and begin soaring about like a troop of swallows preparing to migrate. I watched them for upwards of an hour; but they did not scatter as on previous evenings to seek for food, and after a while they began to rise higher and higher, still keeping close together, until they disappeared from sight. Next morning I found that they had gone.
In Entrerios, Mr. Barrows tells us, this Goatsucker is an abundant summer resident, arriving early in September, and departing again in April. It is strictly crepuscular or nocturnal, never voluntarily taking wing by daylight. In November it lays a pair of spotted eggs in a hollow scooped in the soil of the open plain. These in shape and markings resemble eggs of the Nighthawk (_Chordeiles virginianus_) somewhat, but are of course much larger, and have a distinct reddish tinge. We found the birds not uncommon near Bahia Blanca, February 17, 1881, but elsewhere on the Pampas we did not observe them.
243. CHORDEILES VIRGINIANUS (Gm.).
(WHIP-POOR-WILL.)
+Chordeiles virginianus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 96; _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 24 (Entrerios); _Berlepsch, J. f. O._ 1887, p. 120 (Paraguay).
_Description._--Above black, varied and mottled with brown; wings black, with a broad white bar across the bases of the five outer primaries; tail black, with brown cross bands and a broad white subapical bar: beneath white, with dense blackish cross bands; breast blacker; broad throat-band white; bill black; feet pale brown: whole length 8·5 inches, wing 7·8, tail 4·0. _Female_ similar, but throat-band tawny and no white band on the tail.
_Hab._ North and South America.
The well-known "Whip-poor-Will" of the U. S. appears to extend its winter-migration into Northern Argentina. Mr. Barrows has recorded the capture of two specimens of this species at Concepcion in Entrerios in January 1880 and December of the same year. Its occurrence in Paraguay is also known to us, and Natterer obtained examples of it in S.E. Brazil.
244. ANTROSTOMUS PARVULUS (Gould).
(LITTLE GOATSUCKER.)
+Caprimulgus parvulus+, _Gould, Zool. Voy. Beagle_, iii. p. 37. +Antrostomus parvulus+, _Scl. P. Z. S._ 1866, p. 138, pl. xiii.; _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 96; _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 451 (Paraná); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 184 (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 24 (Entrerios); _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 467 (Lomas de Zamora).
_Description._--Above rufous mottled with blackish, crown black; tips of wing-coverts spotted with white; beneath fulvous with irregular black cross bands; primaries black, with white bars across the second, third, and fourth about half-way down; tail like the back, but tips of outer rectrices white: whole length 7·5 inches, wing 5·3, tail 4·0. _Female_ similar, but without the white spots on the wings and tail.
_Hab._ Brazil and Argentina.
Resident, according to Mr. Durnford, in the province of Buenos Ayres, "but probably, from its shy and retiring disposition, considered rarer than it really is. Like our Nightjar (_Caprimulgus europæus_) it frequents open spots in sheltered coppices on banks under a sheltering hedge of thorns, and may generally be found in the same place from day to day, coming out about dusk in quest of moths and other insects."
Mr. Barrows tells us that this species is not uncommon in Entrerios in summer time, and "doubtless breeds." At dusk he frequently saw it near the margins of the woods and thickets, where it makes only short flights, soon settling on the ground.
Gould's original description of this species was based on a specimen obtained by Darwin near Santa Fé on the Paraná, which is now in the British Museum.
245. STENOPSIS BIFASCIATA (Gould).
(WING-BANDED GOATSUCKER.)
+Stenopsis bifasciata+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 96; _iid. P. Z. S._ 1868, p. 142 (Buenos Ayres); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 37 (Chupat), et 1878, p. 396 (Centr. Patagonia). +Antrostomus longirostris+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 450 (Mendoza).
_Description._--Above greyish brown variegated with black, crown black; light rufous collar at the back of the neck; wing-coverts with large light brown spots; primaries black, with a broad white bar across the five outer ones; tail black; lateral rectrices with a white bar near the base, and very broad white tips: beneath fulvous, with narrow blackish cross bands; throat-band white; crissum pale fulvous: whole length 10·0 inches, wing 6·0, tail 5·0. _Female_ similar, but the white on the throat, wings, and tail replaced by fulvous and less extended.
_Hab._ Chili, Patagonia, and Argentina.
A single skin of this species was obtained at Conchitas by Hudson. Durnford also found it rather rare in Chupat and its vicinity, though resident and breeding in that district. "When flushed it never flies very far, but seeks the shelter of a small bush, squatting flat on the ground, and from its peculiar zigzag mode of flight it is difficult for the eye to follow it."
246. HYDROPSALIS FURCIFERA (Vieill.).
(FORK-TAILED GOATSUCKER.)
[Plate XII.]
+Hydropsalis furcifera+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 96; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 185 (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 24 (Entrerios). +Hydropsalis psalurus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 450 (Paraná). +Hydropsalis torquata+, _Lee, Ibis_, 1873, p. 134 (Gualeguaychú).
_Description._--Above brown varied with black; a light rufous collar on the back of the neck; wing-coverts with numerous rounded white or fulvous spots; wings black, crossed beneath by pale rufous bands; outer primary edged with white: beneath paler, with a pale fulvous throat-collar; tail with the outer rectrix twice as long as the middle pair, black, edged with white; the next three pairs similar, but gradually diminishing in length; the middle pair like the back, and rather longer than the second pair: whole length 20·0 inches, wing 7·2, tail 15·5. _Female_ similar, but tail short, black banded with fulvous, and without any white.
_Hab._ Paraguay and Argentina.
This remarkable Goatsucker was often observed by Durnford in the province of Buenos Ayres in spring and autumn. It lives on the ground, generally in damp situations, and where the grass is long and thick enough to afford some slight cover, and is generally observed in parties of four or five individuals. Its flight is noiseless, and performed by jerky erratic movements. In Entrerios Mr. Barrows tells us this species is a "rather common summer resident, arriving in August and leaving in May. While hunting capybaras and armadillos by moonlight he frequently had good opportunities for watching its movements. Its flight is nearly as irregular and as noiseless as that of a butterfly, while its beautiful tail is opened and shut in the same manner as with the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. Alighting frequently on the ground or on stones or roots, it keeps up a continual but very soft clucking, which is the only note uttered. It was most often seen in open grassy or sandy spots in the woods, especially along the margins of the streams. By day it sits close on the ground, and if disturbed only flies a few yards, though it evidently sees well." Of its nesting-habits and eggs Mr. Barrows did not obtain any information.
The figure (Plate XII.) is taken from a specimen in Sclater's collection, which was obtained at Gualeguaychú in Entrerios by Mr. Lee.
247. HELEOTHREPTUS ANOMALUS (GOULD).
(SHORT-WINGED GOATSUCKER.)
+Amblypterus anomalus+, _Gould, Icon. Av._ pl. 11. +Heleothreptus anomalus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 97; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1878, p. 62 (Buenos Ayres); _Pelz. Orn. Bras._ p. 12.
_Description._--Greyish brown, irregularly dashed and spotted with black; long superciliaries and faint nuchal collar pale fawn-colour; wing-coverts and secondaries like the back, but with pale fawn-coloured spots; primaries black, with the basal portion reddish fawn-colour and tips white, the first six nearly equal in length, and curved inwards; tail fawn-colour, irregularly barred with blackish, two centre feathers like the back: beneath, throat and breast blackish brown, with slight fawn-coloured shaft-spots; abdomen pale fawn-colour, with irregular blackish cross bands; tarsi long, naked: whole length 7·0 inches, wing 5·2, tail 3·5. _Female_ similar, but wings banded with rufous, and without the white tips.
_Hab._ South Brazil and Argentina.
Mr. Durnford obtained a single female of this rare and anomalous Caprimulgine form on the 31st of March, 1877, near Quilmes in the province of Buenos Ayres. It was flushed from a clump of thistles, and its stomach was full of insect-remains.
Order III. PICI.
Fam. XXIII. PICIDÆ, or WOODPECKERS.
The Woodpeckers are distributed all over the world except Australia and the adjacent islands (up to Flores and Celebes) and Madagascar. They are very abundant in the Neotropical and Oriental Regions, where great forests predominate. From South and Central America about 120 species, mostly belonging to peculiar genera, have been recorded. In Argentina, as might have been expected from the vast extent of the pampas districts, Woodpeckers are not so plentiful as in the densely wooded countries of Amazonia and Colombia. But four Woodpeckers are met with in the riverain woods of Buenos Ayres, and a fifth, a curiously modified form, is peculiar to the Pampas, while eight others are known with more or less certainty from the northern provinces of the Republic.
248. CAMPEPHILUS BOIÆI (Wagl.).
(BOIE'S WOODPECKER.)
+Campephilus boiæi+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 98; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 185 (Buenos Ayres); _Salvin, Ibis_, 1880, p. 360 (Salta); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 617 (Catamarca, Salta); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 25 (Entrerios).
_Description._--Above and beneath black; crested head and neck scarlet, ear-coverts black, with a white line below; upper back and interscapulium pale tawny white; bend of wing cinnamomeous; inner webs of primaries pale chestnut; bill white, feet black: whole length 12·0 inches, wing 7·4, tail 4·2. _Female_ similar, but head black, except the sides of the back of the head and the under portion of the crest, which are scarlet.
_Hab._ Bolivia and Northern Argentina.
Durnford found this fine Woodpecker "resident and common" to the north of Buenos Ayres, and on the banks of the Paraná. It is likewise met with in the more northern provinces of the Republic. White obtained specimens in Catamarca and Salta, and Durnford, during his last expedition, in the latter locality. Mr. Barrows speaks of its occurrence in Entrerios as follows:--
"A part of the last week in April 1880 was spent in a considerable tract of forest bordering a stream known as the 'Arroyo Gualeguaychú' at a point about twenty miles west of Concepcion. The wood borders the stream to a depth of a mile or more on each side and stretches up and down stream indefinitely. It had suffered comparatively little from the axe of the charcoal-burner, and many birds, not elsewhere seen, were met with here. Among these was the present beautiful Woodpecker, of which, however, only a single pair was observed, and the male alone taken. It is said to occur sparingly in all the large forests."
249. CAMPEPHILUS SCHULZI (Cab.).
(SCHULZ'S WOODPECKER.)
+Phloeotomus schulzi+, _Cab. Journ. f. Orn._ 1883, p. 102. +Dryocopus atriventris+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 444 (?).
Under this title Dr. Cabanis has shortly described a Woodpecker procured in Central Argentina by Herr Schulz. It is a diminutive form of _C. pileatus_ of North America; and differs from that species in colour only in the following points:--The red crest is comparatively more developed and more pointed; the general colour is more intensely black; the white markings of _C. pileatus_ are present in _C. schulzi_, but the extent of the white on the underside of the wings and on the carpal joint is much less in the latter species. No dimensions are given.
Dr. Cabanis is of opinion that the bird from Mendoza described by Dr. Burmeister as the young of _C. boiæi_ is referable to this new species.
250. DRYOCOPUS ERYTHROPS (Val.).
(RED-FACED WOODPECKER.)
+Dryocopus erythrops+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 99; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 617 (Misiones).
_Description._--Above black; crested head scarlet; broad line from front beneath the eye and down the neck white; malar patch scarlet: beneath, throat white, with black striations; breast black; belly white, transversely barred with black; under surface of wings white; bill plumbeous; feet black: whole length 13·0 inches, wing 7·5, tail 5·0. _Female_ similar, but anterior half of head black, and no scarlet malar patch.
_Hab._ Brazil.
White states that he "observed" a few specimens of this Brazilian species in the dense forests of Misiones; but its occurrence so far south requires confirmation. A more likely species of this genus to occur there would be _D. lineatus_, which has been found in Paraguay (_cf._ Berlepsch, J. f. O. 1887, p. 20).
251. PICUS MIXTUS, Bodd.
(VARIED WOODPECKER.)
+Picus mixtus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 99; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1878, p. 62 (Buenos Ayres); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 617 (Catamarca); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 25 (Entrerios); _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 467 (Lomas de Zamora).
_Description._--Above black, with regular white cross bars; head black, with narrow yellowish shaft-spots; a large patch behind the ear on each side of the neck white; feathers of the nape slightly pointed with rosy red: beneath white, with longitudinal black stripes; under surface of wings white, with black cross bars: whole length 6·0 inches, wing 3·5, tail 2·2. _Female_ similar, but head uniform black, and no red on the nape.
_Hab._ South Brazil and Argentina.
In the district of Buenos Ayres this little Woodpecker, the smallest of the Argentine species of the family, is usually called _Come-palo_ (Wood-eater) in the vernacular. It has all the habits characteristic of the true Woodpeckers, inhabiting the woods and perching vertically on the trees, where it is heard vigorously striking the bark to dislodge the lurking insects with its sharp beak. When disturbed it flits away with a shrill querulous cry, passing to the nearest tree with a rapid undulating flight, and conceals itself by running round the bole to the opposite side. It excavates a straight hole in a rotten or decaying branch to breed in, and a common species of _Synallaxis_ (_Leptasthenura ægithaloides_) frequently makes use of its forsaken breeding-holes. The entire plumage in both sexes is very dark, nearly black, densely and evenly marked with oblong white spots. The loose feathers of the crown are black tipped with scarlet, but in the female the one spot of bright colour is scarcely if at all perceptible.
White met with this Woodpecker near Cordova and in Catamarca, and Mr. Barrows in Entrerios, where, however, though resident, it does not appear to be common.
252. PICUS CACTORUM, d'Orb. et Lafr.
(CACTUS WOODPECKER.)
+Picus cactorum+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 99; _Salvin, Ibis_, 1880, p. 361 (Salta); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 617 (Catamarca); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 25 (Gualeguaychú). +Dendrobates cactorum+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 445 (Catamarca).
_Description._--Above black; large blotch on the front and another on the nape dull white; small coronal spot scarlet; wings and tail black, with white cross bands; rump white, spotted with black: beneath buffy white, throat strongly tinged with orange; bill and feet black: whole length 6·8 inches, wing 4·1, tail 2·3. _Female_ similar, but without the red spot on the crown.
_Hab._ Bolivia and Northern Argentina.
Prof. Burmeister met with three specimens of this Woodpecker at Capellán, south-west of Catamarca. White obtained examples of both sexes in Catamarca, and found it tolerably abundant in that province. "Three or four are usually observed together on a large cactus, but on being disturbed either take to another cactus or to the lofty branches of algaroba-trees."
In Entrerios Mr. Barrows tells us this species is more common than _P. mixtus_, but abundant only on the Gualeguaychú, about twenty miles west of Concepcion.
253. CHLORONERPES AFFINIS (Wagl.).
(ALLIED WOODPECKER.)
+Chloronerpes affinis+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 99; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 617 (Salta).
_Description._--Above dull olive-green, with fine yellowish shaft-spots; wings and tail black, spotted with white; head black, bordered behind by a yellow nuchal collar, front of head with white shaft-spots, hinder half with scarlet ends to the feathers: beneath greyish white, with narrow black cross bands; under surface of wings white, barred with black: whole length 6·5 inches, wing 3·7, tail 2·4. _Female_ similar, but without any red on the nape.
_Hab._ Brazil.
White identified a pair of birds obtained at Campo Santo, in Salta, as belonging to this species, but his determination requires confirmation, as there are several forms of this genus nearly alike which require accurate discrimination.
254. CHLORONERPES FRONTALIS, Cab.
(RED-FRONTED WOODPECKER.)
+Chloronerpes (Campias) frontalis+, _Cab. Journ. f. Orn._ 1883, p. 110.
_Description._--Like _C. maculifrons_ (Spix), but larger; red of head darker and broader, and without any golden-yellow border; beneath darker and more thickly cross-banded, with the bright bands narrower.
_Hab._ Tucuman.
This little-known species is one of Herr Fritz Schulz's discoveries in the mountain-forests of Tucuman.
255. CHLORONERPES AURULENTUS (Licht.).
(GOLD-BACKED WOODPECKER.)
+Chloronerpes aurulentus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 99; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 617 (Misiones).
_Description._--Above olive-green, crown and malar stripe scarlet; sides of head slaty, with a yellowish line above and beneath; wings black, with transverse bars of rusty red; tail black: beneath greyish white, regularly barred across with black, throat yellow: whole length 8·0 inches, wing 4·8, tail 2·2. _Female_ similar, but only the nape scarlet, rest of cap like the back.
_Hab._ Brazil.
The occurrence of this Woodpecker in Argentina also rests upon White's authority. But as it is found in Paraguay (_cf._ Berlepsch, J. f. O. 1887, p. 120), it is very likely to extend into Misiones. White states that it is common in San Javier, and usually "seen singly in dead high trees."
256. CHLORONERPES TUCUMANUS, Cab.
(TUCUMAN WOODPECKER.)
+Chloronerpes tucumanus+, _Cab. Journ. f. Orn._ 1883, p. 103.
_Description._--Like _C. rubiginosus_, and principally distinguishable by its rather larger size and darker under surface, in which the yellowish hue is wanting.
_Hab._ Tucuman.
This is another discovery of Herr Fritz Schulz in Tucuman, which has been shortly described by Dr. Cabanis.
257. CHRYSOPTILUS CRISTATUS (Vieill.).
(RED-CRESTED WOODPECKER.)
+Chrysoptilus melanochlorus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 445 (Paraná, Cordova, Tucuman). +Chrysoptilus chlorozostus+, _Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S._ 1868, p. 143 (Conchitas). +Chrysoptilus cristatus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 100; _Gibson, Ibis_, 1880, p. 11 (Buenos Ayres); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 618 (Catamarca); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 25 (Entrerios); _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 468 (Lomas de Zamora). +Colaptes leucofrenatus+, _Leybola, Leopoldina_, Heft viii. p. 53 (1873).
_Description._--Above black, barred across with white; rump white, with black spots; top of head black, nape scarlet; sides of head white, bordered beneath by black, which carries a scarlet malar stripe: beneath white, on the neck yellowish, thickly covered with round black spots; throat white, striped with black; under surface of wings white, tinged with yellow; tail black, lateral rectrices slightly barred with yellowish; bill and feet black: whole length 10·5 inches, wing 5·8, tail 4·0. _Female_ similar, but without the scarlet malar patch.
_Hab._ Paraguay and Argentina.
This Woodpecker ranges as far south as the vicinity of Buenos Ayres, and is not uncommon there in the few localities which possess wild forests. It is the handsomest of our Woodpeckers, having brighter tints than its congener of the plains, _Colaptes agricola_. Like that bird, though not to the same extent, it has diverged from the typical Picidæ in its habits, alighting sometimes on the ground to feed, and also frequently perching crosswise on branches of trees. It has a powerful, clear, abrupt, and oft-repeated note, and a rapid undulating flight.
The following interesting account of its breeding-habits appears in one of Mr. Gibson's papers:--"The excavation for the nest is begun as early as September; but the eggs are only laid during the first half of October. The hole is generally commenced where some branch has decayed away; but care is taken that the remainder of the tree is sound. It opens at a height of from six to nine feet from the ground, and is excavated to a depth of nearly a foot. Occasionally it is sufficiently wide to admit of one's hand, but such is not always the case. No preparation is made for the eggs beyond the usual lining of some chips of wood.
"The pair which frequented the garden excavated a hole in a paradise-tree, and bred there for two consecutive years. The tree stood near one of the walks, and on any one passing the sitting bird immediately showed its head at the aperture, like a jack-in-the-box, and then flew away. Last year this pair actually bred in one of the posts of the horse-corral, notwithstanding the noise and bustle incident to such a locality. While waiting there, at sunrise, for the herd of horses to be shut in I used often to knock at the post, in order to make the Woodpecker leave its nest, but the bird seemed indifferent to such a mild attack, and would even sit still while a hundred horses and mares rushed about the corral or hurled themselves against the sides of it. In another case I had worked with hammer and chisel for half-an-hour, cutting a hole on a level with the bottom of a nest, when the female first demonstrated her presence by flying out almost into my face. This last nest contained four (considerably incubated) eggs, which I took. Happening to pass the spot a fortnight after, I inspected the hole and was surprised to find that it had been deepened and other five eggs laid, while the entrance I had cut was the one now used by the birds. The nest was again resorted to the following year and a brood hatched out, but since then a pair of Wrens have occupied the place to the exclusion of the rightful owners."
The eggs are white, four or five in number, pear-shaped, and with polished shells.
White obtained specimens of this Woodpecker in Catamarca, and Mr. Barrows found it resident in Entrerios. The latter tells us it is "abundant in the woods everywhere, and conspicuous for its activity, bright colours, and large size."
258. LEUCONERPES CANDIDUS (Otto).
(WHITE-BELLIED WOODPECKER.)
+Leuconerpes candidus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 445 (Paraná, Cordova); _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 100; _Salvin, Ibis_, 1880, p. 361 (Salta); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 618 (Misiones); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 25 (Entrerios).
_Description._--Above white; wings and upper back, with a line on each side running up to the eye, black; nape tinged with yellow: beneath white; tail black, with white cross bands: whole length 11·0 inches, wing 5·5, tail 4·5. _Female_ similar, but without the yellow on the nape.
_Hab._ S. Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Northern Argentina.
Prof. Burmeister met with this peculiarly coloured Woodpecker near Paraná, and Mr. Barrows found it resident in Entrerios, though not very abundant.
White speaks of this species as follows:--"These noisy birds, abundant in various parts of Misiones as well as in the rest of the north of the Republic, go about in flocks of eight or ten, and settle on the same tree, which they proceed to ascend very comically in a spiral or corkscrew fashion, each head touching the preceding tail. They are not seen in dense forests, but only out in the open, on some old, usually dead, tree, and I think I observed them as far south as the sierras of Cordoba."
259. COLAPTES LONGIROSTRIS, Cab.
(LONG-BILLED WOODPECKER.)
+Colaptes longirostris+, _Cabanis, Journ. f. Orn._ 1883, p. 97.
_Description._--Similar to _C. rupicola_, d'Orb., but with the bill much longer.
_Hab._ Tucuman.
This is a southern form of the Brazilian _C. rupicola_, which has been recently described by Dr. Cabanis. Herr Schulz obtained a single male example of this species in Tucuman. Like _C. rupicola_ it has red moustaches, but no red nape-band, whereas the more northern _C. pura_ of Peru shows a red nape-band in both sexes.
260. COLAPTES AGRICOLA (Malh.).
(PAMPAS WOODPECKER.)
+Colaptes agricola+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 101; _Hudson, P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 549 (Rio Negro); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 25 (Entrerios); _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 468 (Lomas de Zamora). +Colaptes australis+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 445 (Paraná). +Colaptes campestris+, _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 618 (Misiones).
_Description._--Above greyish white, transversely barred with blackish; wings black, with golden-yellow shafts, and white bars on the outer webs; rump white, with smaller black cross bars; crested head black; sides of head and whole neck in front yellow; malar stripe red; abdomen white, with regular transverse black bars; under wing-coverts yellowish white; bill and feet black: whole length 13·0 inches, wing 6·8, tail 4·9. _Female_ similar, but no red malar stripe.
_Hab._ Argentina and Patagonia.
The species commonly called _Carpintero_ in the Argentine country, and ranging south to Patagonia, is one of a group of the Picidæ of South America which diverge considerably in habits from the typical Woodpeckers. On trees they usually perch horizontally and crosswise, like ordinary birds, and only occasionally cling vertically to trunks of trees, using the tail as a support. They also seek their food more on the ground than on trees, in some cases not at all on trees, and they also breed oftener in holes in banks or cliffs than in the trunks of trees. As Darwin remarks in 'The Origin of Species,' in his chapter on Instinct, these birds have, to some slight extent, been modified structurally in accordance with their less arboreal habits, the beak being weaker, the rectrices less stiff, and the legs longer than in other Woodpeckers. In South Brazil and Bolivia the _Colaptes campestris_ represents this group, in Chili _C. pitius_, and in the Argentine country _C. agricola_.
Azara's description, under the heading _El Campestre_, probably refers to the Brazilian species, but agrees so well in every particular with the pampas Woodpecker that I cannot do better than to quote it in full.
"Though this name (_Campestre_) seems inappropriate for any Woodpecker, no other better describes the present species, since it never enters forests, nor climbs on trunks to seek for insects under the bark, but finds its aliment on the open plain, running with ease on the ground, for its legs are longer than in the others. There it forcibly strikes its beak into the matted turf, where worms or insects lie concealed, and when the ant-hills are moist it breaks into them to feed on the ants or their larvæ. It also perches on trees, large or small, on the trunks or branches, whether horizontal or upright, sometimes in a clinging position and sometimes crosswise in the manner common to birds. Its voice is powerful, and its cry uttered frequently both when flying and perching. It goes with its mate or family, and is the most common species in all these countries. It lays two to four eggs, with white and highly polished shells, and breeds in holes which it excavates in old walls of mud or of unbaked brick, also in the banks of streams; and the eggs are laid on the bare floor without any lining."
In Patagonia, where I have found this bird breeding in the cliffs of the Rio Negro, its habits are precisely as Azara says; but on the pampas of Buenos Ayres, where the conditions are different, there being no cliffs or old mud-walls suitable for breeding-places, the bird resorts to the big solitary ombú tree (_Pircunia dioica_), which has a very soft wood, and excavates a hole 7 to 9 inches deep, inclining upwards near the end, and terminating in a round chamber.
This reversion to an ancestral habit, which (considering the modified structure of the bird) must have been lost at a very remote period in its history, is exceedingly curious. Formerly this Woodpecker was quite common on the pampas. I remember that when I was a small boy quite a colony lived in the ombú trees growing about my home; now it is nearly extinct, and one may spend years on the plains without meeting with a single example.
Mr. Barrows speaks as follows of this species:--"Abundant and breeding at all points visited. At Concepcion, where it is resident, it is by far the commonest Woodpecker. The ordinary note very much resembles the reiterated alarm-note of the Greater Yellow-legs (_Totanus melanoleucus_), but so loud as to be almost painful when close at hand, and easily heard a mile or more away. They spend much time on the ground, and I often found the bills of those shot quite muddy. They are very tough and hard to kill, and a wounded one shows about as many sharp points as a Hawk. A nest found near Concepcion, November 6, 1880, was in the hollow trunk of a tree, the entrance being through an enlarged crack at a height of some three feet from the ground. The five white eggs were laid on the rubbish at the bottom of the cavity, perhaps a foot above the ground. In the treeless region about the Sierra de la Ventana we saw this bird about holes on the banks of the streams, where it doubtless had nests."
Order IV. COCCYGES.
Fam. XXIV. ALCEDINIDÆ, or KINGFISHERS.
The Kingfishers, which form the subject of an excellent illustrated Monograph by Mr. Sharpe[1], are but feebly represented in the New World. Out of the many varied generic forms which make up the family, only a single genus, with about eight species, is met with in the whole of the American Continent. This genus (_Ceryle_) is of wide diffusion, having also representatives in Africa and Asia. There is thus a great contrast with the Old World, where at least 120 species of Kingfishers are met with.
[1] A Monograph of the Alcedinidæ, or Family of Kingfishers. By R. B. Sharpe. London, 1868-71.
261. CERYLE TORQUATA (Linn.).
(RINGED KINGFISHER.)
+Ceryle torquata+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 103; _Barrows, Auk_ 1884, p. 26 (Entrerios); _Sharpe, Mon. Alc._ pl. xxii. p. 73; _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 468 (Lomas de Zamora). +Megaceryle torquata+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 446 (Paraná).
_Description._--Above bluish grey, with narrow black shaft-stripes and some small round spots of white; wings black, with a large portion of the inner webs towards the base white, coverts like the back; tail black, crossed by white bars, central rectrices edged with bluish grey: beneath chestnut-red; throat, centre of belly, and crissum white: whole length 15·0 inches, wings 7·7, tail 5·5. _Female_ similar, but with a broad bluish-grey pectoral band.
_Hab._ Central and South America.
This beautiful bird, the largest of the American Kingfishers, is found throughout the greater portion of South and Central America. In the Argentine Republic it is somewhat rare, though widely distributed, and ranging as far south as Buenos Ayres. Dr. Döring mentions _Ceryle torquata_ amongst the species collected by him on the Rio Negro, in Patagonia; but it is possible that the closely allied _C. stellata_ is meant, as this form represents the larger and more brightly-coloured bird in the Magellanic district.
Notwithstanding its wide distribution and great beauty, little has been recorded of the habits of this species. In Amazonia, Bartlett says:--"It breeds in company with _Ceryle amazona_. The nest, however, is placed very much deeper in the bank than in the case of the last-named bird, the hole being from 4 to 6 feet in depth, with a chamber at the end sufficiently large for the young birds when nearly full-grown."
262. CERYLE AMAZONA (Lath.).
(AMAZONIAN KINGFISHER.)
+Ceryle amazona+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 103; _White, P. Z. S._ 1883, p. 40 (Cordova); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 26 (Entrerios); _Sharpe, Mon. Alc._ pl. xxiv. p. 83. +Chloroceryle amazona+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 446 (Paraná).
_Description._--Above dark green, with a white neck-band: beneath white, with a broad chestnut pectoral band; flanks striped with green; under surface of wings white; tail beneath slaty, with white bars on the inner webs: whole length 11·0 inches, wing 5·3, tail 3·4. _Female_ without the red pectoral band, which is incompletely replaced by dark green.
_Hab._ South America.
This Kingfisher was found by White at Cosquin, where it is usually met with along the _acequias_, or canals made for the purpose of irrigating the cultivated lands. These canals are in places bordered with brushwood and trees, and are tolerably deep, with a swiftly flowing current, and abound in small fishes, so that this bird seems to prefer them as hunting-grounds to the rocky river-bed.
In Entrerios Mr. Barrows tells us this Kingfisher is not uncommon along the Lower Uruguay, and sometimes ascends the smaller streams a short distance. It is much more easily approached than _C. torquata_.
_C. amazona_ is also found as far south as Buenos Ayres, where I have always seen them singly or in pairs. Its usual cry is exceedingly loud, hard, and abrupt, and so rapidly reiterated as to give it a sound resembling that of a policeman's rattle. But this is not its only language, and I was greatly surprised one day at hearing one _warbling_ long clear notes, somewhat flute-like in quality, as it flew from tree to tree along the borders of a stream. It seems very strange that there should be a melodious Kingfisher; but Mr. Barrows also heard the allied _Ceryle americana_ sing, much to his surprise. My belief is, that the birds of this group possess a singing faculty, but very rarely exercise it; with _C. americana_ I am well acquainted, yet I never heard it utter any note except its hard, rattling cry, resembling that of _C. amazona_, but less powerful.
263. CERYLE AMERICANA (Gm.).
(LITTLE KINGFISHER.)
+Ceryle americana+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 103; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 185 (Buenos Ayres); _Salvin, Ibis_, 1880, p. 361 (Salta); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 26 (Entrerios); _Sharpe, Mon. Alc._ pl. xxvi. p. 89. +Chloroceryle americana+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 447 (Paraná).
_Description._--Above bronzy green; line along sides of head and neck-collar white; wings spotted with white; tail above green, beneath blackish, barred with white on the inner webs; throat white; breast chestnut-red; belly and crissum white, flanks with bronzy-green spots; bill and feet black: whole length 7·0 inches, wing 3·1, tail 2·5. _Female_ similar, but no chestnut on the breast, which is crossed by a bronzy-green band.
_Hab._ South America.
This is the smallest of our three Kingfishers, and nearly resembles _C. amazona_ in plumage. Durnford found it "not uncommon" about the creeks and streams at the mouth of the Paraná, and also obtained specimens in the north of the Republic near Salta, during his last journey. Prof. Burmeister met with it at Paraná and Tucuman.
Mr. Barrows gives us the following notes on this Kingfisher:--
"Resident through the year at Concepcion, but especially abundant in winter, when it haunts the main river, the island-shores, and all the streams, big and little. It is not in the least shy, and one once perched in some willows directly over my boat and not 10 feet away, while he swallowed a tiny fish he had just captured; after which he twitted such a hearty little song that I really felt as if his proper place must be among the _Oscines_, in spite of all anatomical defects. On the Pampas, we found this a rather common bird on the small streams, and its presence on some streams whose waters are entirely absorbed by the desert before they can reach either sea or lake, first called my attention to the presence, even in these streams, of numbers of a small fish which is found in many of the pools as well all over the Pampas. Although both this and the preceding species must nest about Concepcion, I did not succeed of learning anything of the nest or eggs."
Fam. XXV. TROGONIDÆ, or TROGONS.
The Trogons, a family peculiar among all zygodactyle birds for having the inner toe instead of the outer toe reversed in position, are found in the Old World as well as in the New. But they are much more abundant in the Tropics of America, where they number some thirty species, and attain an astonishing development of ornamental plumage in the celebrated Quézal (_Pharomacrus_) of Guatemala. In Argentina two stray species only have, as yet, been recorded as met with in the northern provinces.
The Trogons are purely arboreal in habits, and frequent the larger trees of the denser forests, feeding mainly on insects.
264. TROGON VARIEGATUS, Spix.
(PURPLE-BREASTED TROGON.)
+Trogon variegatus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 104; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 618 (Salta); _Gould, Mon. Trog._ ed. 2, pl. xix.
_Description._--Above shining bronzy green; head purplish; wings blackish; coverts grey, finely vermiculated with black; tail--two middle feathers like the back, but tipped with black, next two pairs black, edged with green; three outer pairs white with broad black bars and white tips: beneath, breast dark purple, separated from the rosy-red abdomen by a narrow white band: whole length 9·0 inches, wing 5·0, tail 5·0. _Female_: above dark grey; wing-coverts and secondaries with transverse bars of black and white; tail, blackish, two middle feathers grey tipped with black, three outer pairs broadly edged externally and tipped with white: beneath, breast dark grey, separated from the rosy-red abdomen by a white band.
_Hab._ Brazil and N. Argentina.
White obtained examples of this Trogon at Campo Colorado, near Oran, where it frequents the topmost branches of the loftiest forest-trees, and is very difficult to discover. It is said to have a peculiar mournful cry.
265. TROGON SURUCURA, Vieill.
(AZARA'S TROGON.)
+Trogon surucura+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 104; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 619 (Misiones); _Gould, Mon. Trog._ ed. 2, pl. xxv.
_Description._--Above bronzy green, head purplish; wings black, coverts and outer secondaries grey, finely vermiculated with black; tail--two middle feathers like the back, but tipped with black; others black, but three outer pairs with most of the outer webs and broad tips white: beneath, breast purple, abdomen red: whole length 11·0 inches, wing 5·3, tail 5·7. _Female_: grey; belly rosy red; wing-coverts and outer secondaries black, with white bars.
_Hab._ S. Brazil, Paraguay, and N. E. Argentina.
This is the only _Trogon_ included by Azara in his Birds of Paraguay. He calls it "Surucuá," and states that it is confined to the larger forests of that country.
White obtained a single example of this species in the forests of Misiones, near Concepcion, in June 1881.
Fam. XXVI. BUCCONIDÆ, or PUFF-BIRDS.
The Bucconidæ, or Puff-birds, are entirely restricted to the Neotropical Region, and are most numerous in the great forests of Amazonia and Colombia, where most of the 43 known species have been met with. These birds seem to pass their lives sitting upon the topmost or outermost branches of the larger trees, looking out for insects, which are captured flying and constitute their only food. Southwards of the great forest-districts of South America, Puff-birds become very scarce. One species only is as yet known to occur in Paraguay, and some uncertainty prevails as to the single member of this family stated to be found near Tucuman.
266. BUCCO MACULATUS (Gm.).
(SPOTTED PUFF-BIRD.)
+Bucco maculatus+, _Scl. Jamacars and Puff-birds_, p. 99, pl. xxxii.; _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 106. +Capito maculatus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 446.
_Description._--Above blackish, spotted with brown; lores, superciliaries, and neck-collar pale cinnamomeous white: beneath white, fore neck clear reddish cinnamon; breast and belly covered with round black spots; chin and middle of belly whitish; tail black, with transverse bars of pale brown; under wing-coverts and under surface of wings white; bill red, with the culmen and base blackish; feet plumbeous: whole length 8·0 inches, wing 3·2, tail 2·8. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ S.E. Brazil.
Dr. Burmeister records the occurrence of this species of Puff-bird near Tucuman, and it must therefore be placed in our list on his authority. But it is possible that the species which he met with may have been the nearly allied _B. striatipectus_ of the Bolivian frontier of Brazil, which is more likely to extend into Northern Argentina than the true _B. maculatus_. _B. striatipectus_ (figured and described in Sclater's 'Monograph of the Jacamars and Puff-birds,' pl. xxxiii. p. 101) is very similar to _B. maculatus_, but has the spots on the belly elongated into long striations.
It is again possible that the _Bucco_ of Tucuman may be the Paraguayan _B. chacuru_ of Vieillot, founded upon the "_Chacuru_" of Azara, which is another species not remotely allied to _B. maculatus_.
Fam. XXVII. CUCULIDÆ, or CUCKOOS.
The Cuckoos form an extensive and rather varied family of zygodactyle birds with a somewhat wide distribution, being found in all parts of the world except in the extreme north, where their insect-food would not be abundantly met with. The true _Cuculi_, so remarkable for their parasitic habits, are not found in the New World, but several genera of arboreal Cuckoos (_Coccyzus_, _Piaya_, &c.), and others of terrestrial habits (_Crotophaga_, _Geococcyx_, and _Saurothera_), are met with, chiefly in the Neotropical Region, and number altogether some thirty species. Of these, eight are known to occur within the confines of the Argentine Republic.
267. CROTOPHAGA ANI, Linn.
(BLACK ANI.)
+Crotophaga ani+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 107; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 619 (Salta).
_Description._--Black, glossed with bronzy and purplish; bill and feet black; bill with the culmen much elevated, compressed and cultrate: whole length 13·0 inches, wing 5·5, tail 7·0. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ Veragua and South America down to Northern Argentina.
This strange Cuckoo, with the plumage and some of the habits of a Crow, is of a nearly uniform black, glossed with bronze, dark green, and purple. Its most peculiar feature is the beak, which is greater in depth than in length, and resembles an immense Roman nose, occupying the whole face, and with the bridge bulging up above the top of the head. The Ani is found only in the northern portion of the Argentine territory. According to Azara it is very common in Paraguay, and goes in flocks, associating with the Guira Cuckoo, which it resembles in its manner of flight, in being gregarious, in feeding on the ground, and in coming a great deal about houses; in all which things these two species differ widely from most Cuckoos. He also says that it has a loud disagreeable voice, follows the cattle about in the pastures like the Cow-bird, and builds a large nest of sticks lined with leaves, in which as many as twenty or thirty eggs are frequently deposited, several females laying together in one nest. His account of these strange and disorderly breeding-habits has been confirmed by independent observers in other parts of the continent. The eggs are oval and outwardly white, being covered with a soft white cretaceous deposit; but this can be easily scraped off, and under it is found a smooth hard shell of a clear beautiful blue colour.
268. GUIRA PIRIRIGUA (Vieill.).
(GUIRA CUCKOO.)
+Guira piririgua+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 107; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 185 (Buenos Ayres); _Gibson, Ibis_, 1880, p. 8 (Buenos Ayres); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 619 (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 26 (Entrerios); _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 468 (Lomas de Zamora). +Ptiloleptis guira+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 443.
_Description._--Above dark brown, with white shaft-stripes; head brown; wings reddish brown, passing into blackish brown on the outer secondaries; rump white; tail white, at the base ochraceous, crossed by a very broad black band, except the two central feathers, which are uniform brown: beneath sordid white, throat and upper breast with long linear black shaft-stripes; bill and feet yellow: whole length 15·0 inches, wing 7·0, tail 8·0. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.
"_Piririgua_," the specific term adopted by naturalists for this bird, is, according to Azara, the vernacular name of the species in Paraguay. He says that in that country it is abundant, but scarce in the Plata district. No doubt it has greatly increased and extended its range southwards during the hundred years which have elapsed since his time, as it is now very common in Buenos Ayres, where its vernacular name is _Urraca_ (Magpie). In the last-named country it is not yet quite in harmony with its environment. Everywhere its habit is to feed exclusively on the ground, in spite of possessing feet formed for climbing; but its very scanty plumage, slow laborious flight, and long square tail, so unsuitable in cold boisterous weather, show that the species is a still unmodified intruder from the region of perpetual summer many degrees nearer to the equator.
The Guira Cuckoo is about sixteen inches long, has red eyes and blue feet, and an orange-red beak. The crown of the head is deep rufous, and the loose hair-like feathers are lengthened into a pointed crest. The back and rump are white, the wings and other upper parts very dark fuscous, marked with white and pale brown. Under surface dull white, with hair-like black marks on the throat and breast. The tail is square, 9 to 10 inches long; the two middle feathers dark brown, the others three-coloured--yellow at the base, the middle portion dark glossy green, the ends white; and when the bird is flying the tail, spread out like a fan, forms a conspicuous and beautiful object.
During the inclement winter of Buenos Ayres the Guira Cuckoo is a miserable bird, and appears to suffer more than any other creature from cold. In the evening the flock, usually composed of from a dozen to twenty individuals, gathers on the thick horizontal branch of a tree sheltered from the wind, the birds crowding close together for warmth, and some of them roosting perched on the backs of their fellows. I have frequently seen them roosting three deep, one or two birds at the top to crown the pyramid; but with all their huddling together a severe frost is sure to prove fatal to one or more birds in the flock; and sometimes several birds that have dropped from the branch stiff with cold are found under the trees in the morning. If the morning is fair the flock betakes itself to some large tree, on which the sun shines, to settle on the outermost twigs on the northern side, each bird with its wings drooping, and its back turned towards the sun. In this spiritless attitude they spend an hour or two warming their blood and drying the dew from their scanty dress. During the day they bask much in the sun, and towards evening may be again seen on the sunny side of a hedge or tree warming their backs in the last rays. It is owing, no doubt, to fecundity, and to an abundance of food that the Guira Cuckoo is able to maintain its existence so far south in spite of its terrible enemy the cold.
With the return of warm weather this species becomes active, noisy, and the gayest of birds; the flock constantly wanders about from place to place, the birds flying in a scattered desultory manner one behind the other, and incessantly uttering while on the wing a long complaining cry. At intervals during the day they also utter a kind of song, composed of a series of long modulated whistling notes, two-syllabled, the first powerful and vehement, and becoming at each repetition lower and shorter, then ending in a succession of hoarse internal sounds like the stertorous breathing of a sleeping man. When approached all the birds break out into a chorus of alarm, with notes so annoyingly loud and sustained, that the intruder, be it man or beast, is generally glad to hurry out of ear-shot. As the breeding-season approaches they are heard, probably the males, to utter a variety of soft low chattering notes, sounding sometimes like a person laughing and crying together: the flock then breaks up into pairs, the birds becoming silent and very circumspect in their movements. The nest is usually built in a thorn-tree, of rather large sticks, a rough large structure, the inside often lined with green leaves plucked from the trees. The eggs are large for the bird, and usually six or seven in number; but the number varies greatly, and I have known one bird lay as many as fourteen. They are elliptical in form and beautiful beyond comparison, being of an exquisite turquoise-blue, the whole shell roughly spattered with white. The white spots are composed of a soft calcareous substance, apparently deposited on the surface of the shell after its complete formation: they are raised, and look like snow-flakes, and when the egg is fresh laid may be easily washed off with cold water, and are so extremely delicate that their purity is lost on the egg being taken into the hand. The young birds hatched from these lovely eggs are proverbial for their ugliness, _Pichon de Urraca_ being a term of contempt commonly applied to a person remarkable for want of comeliness. They are as unclean as they are ugly, so that the nest, usually containing six or seven young, is pleasant neither to sight nor smell. There is something ludicrous in the notes of these young birds, resembling, as they do, the shrill half-hysterical laughter of a female exhausted by over-indulgence in mirth. One summer there was a large brood in a tree close to my home, and every time we heard the parent bird hastening to her nest with food in her beak, and uttering her plaintive cries, we used to run to the door to hear them. As soon as the old bird reached the nest they would burst forth into such wild extravagant peals and continue them so long, that we could not but think it a rare amusement to listen to them.
According to Azara the Guira Cuckoo in Paraguay has very friendly relations with the Ani (_Crotophaga ani_), the birds consorting together in one flock, and even laying their eggs in one nest; and he affirms that he has seen nests containing eggs of both species. These nests were probably brought to him by his Indian collectors, who were in the habit of deceiving him, and it is more than probable that in this matter they were practising on his credulity; though it is certain that birds of different species do sometimes lay in one nest, as I have found--the Common Teal and the Tinamou for instance. I also doubt very much that the bird is ever polygamous, as Azara suspected; but it frequently wastes eggs, and its procreant habits are sometimes very irregular and confusing, as the following case will show:--
A flock numbering about sixteen individuals passed the winter in the trees about my home, and in spring scattered about the plantation, screaming and chattering in their usual manner when about to breed. I watched them, and found that after a time the flock broke up into small parties of three or four, and not into couples, and I could not detect them building. At length I discovered three broken eggs on the ground, and on examining the tree overhead found an incipient nest composed of about a dozen sticks laid crossways and out of which the eggs had been dropped. This was in October, and for a long time no other attempt at a nest was made; but wasted eggs were dropped in abundance on the ground, and I continued finding them for about four months. Early in January another incipient nest was found, and on the ground beneath it six broken eggs. At the end of that month two large nests were made, each nest by one pair of birds, and in the two fourteen or fifteen young birds were reared.
When taken young the Guira Cuckoos become very tame, and make bold, noisy, mischievous pets, fond of climbing over and tugging at the clothes, buttons, and hair of their master or mistress. They appear to be more intelligent than most birds, and in a domestic state resemble the Magpie. I knew one tame that would carry off and jealously conceal bits of bright-coloured ribbon, thread, or cloth. In a wild state their food consists largely of insects, which they sometimes pursue running and flying along the ground. They also prey on mice and small reptiles, and carry off the fledglings from the nests of Sparrows and other small birds, and in spring they are frequently seen following the plough to pick up worms.
269. DIPLOPTERUS NÆVIUS (Gm.).
(BROWN CUCKOO.)
+Diplopterus nævius+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 107. +Diplopterus galeritus+, _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 27 (Entrerios).
_Description._--Above ashy brown, with large black shaft-spots; head rufous, striated with black; wings blackish, edged with brown; tail similar, but with slight white tips to the feathers, and the upper tail-coverts much elongated: beneath dirty white: whole length 11·5 inches, wing 4·5, tail 5·5. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ Mexico, and Central and South America down to Argentina.
The Brown Cuckoo, called "Crispin," is found throughout the hot portion of South America, and in different districts varies considerably in size and colouring. It is about 12 inches long, the beak much curved; the prevailing colour of the upper parts is light brown, the loose feathers on the head, which form a crest, deep rufous. The upper tail-coverts are long loose feathers of very unequal length, the longest reaching nearly to the end of the tail. The under surface is dirty white, or dashed with grey.
Azara says it is called _Chochi_ in Paraguay, and has a clear sorrowful note of two syllables, which it repeats at short intervals during the day, and also at night during the love-season. It is solitary, scarce, and excessively shy, escaping on the opposite side of the tree when approached, and when seen having the head and crest raised in an attitude of alarm. In the northern part of the Argentine country it is called _Crispin_, from its note which clearly pronounces that name. Mr. Barrows found it common at Concepcion on the Uruguay river, and has written the following notes about it:--
"Several were taken in open bushy places, and many others were heard. It is a plain but attractive Cuckoo with a few-feathered crest, and long soft flowing upper tail-coverts. The note is very clear and penetrating, sounding much like the word 'crispin' slowly uttered, and with the accent on the last syllable. The birds are very shy, and I followed one for nearly an hour before I saw it at all, and nearly twice that time before any chance of a shot was offered. There is some peculiarity in the note which makes it impossible to tell whether the bird is in front of or behind you--even when the note itself is distinctly heard. I know nothing of nest or eggs."
From personal observation I can say nothing about this species, as I never visited the district where it is found; but with the fame of the Crispin I have always been familiar, for concerning this Cuckoo the Argentine peasants have a very pretty legend. It is told that two children of a woodcutter, who lived in a lonely spot on the Uruguay, lost themselves in the woods--a little boy named Crispin and his sister. They subsisted on wild fruit, wandering from place to place, and slept at night on a bed of dry grass and leaves. One morning the little girl awoke to discover that her brother had disappeared from her side. She sprung up and ran through the woods to seek for him, but never found him; but day after day continued wandering in the thickets calling "_Crispin, Crispin_," until at length she was changed into a little bird, which still flies through the woods on its never-ending quest, following every stranger that enters them, calling after him "_Crispin, Crispin_," if by chance it should be her lost brother.
270. PIAYA CAYANA (Linn.).
(CHESTNUT CUCKOO.)
+Piaya cayana+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 108; _Salvin, Ibis_, 1880, p. 361 (Tucuman); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 619 (Misiones).
_Description._--Above deep chestnut-red: beneath pale grey, passing into blackish on the crissum; throat and neck pale chestnut-brown; tail-feathers beneath brown, more or less blackish, and, except the middle pair which are like the back, broadly tipped with white: whole length 16·0 inches, wing 5·5, tail 10·5. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ Central and South America.
This is a widely-spread form of Cuckoo in Central and South America, and reaches the northern territories of the Argentine Republic, having been obtained by Durnford near Tucuman, and by White in Misiones. The whole bird is about 18 inches long, and the tail very long in proportion, about 11 inches. The entire plumage, except the breast and belly, which are grey, is chestnut colour. The beak is very strong, and yellowish green in colour; the irides, ruby-red, the eyelids scarlet.
In Colombia this Cuckoo is said to be called _Pajaro ardilla_ (Squirrel-bird), from its chestnut tint. It seems to feed chiefly, if not altogether, on the ground, and when perched always appears awkward and ill-at-ease. On a branch it sits motionless, until approached, and then creeps away through the leaves and escapes on the opposite side of the tree. This, however, is a habit common to most Cuckoos. Its language is a loud screaming cry, on account of which the Brazilians call it _Alma do gato_, implying that it possesses the soul of a cat. It is a very shy retiring bird, and in this respect is more like a _Coccyzus_ than a _Guira_.
For these facts we are indebted to Léotaud, Fraser, Forbes, White, and others; each of these observers having contributed a few words to a history of this interesting bird's habits.
271. COCCYZUS AMERICANUS (Linn.).
(YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO.)
+Coccyzus americanus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 108; _Sclater, P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 490 (Buenos Ayres); _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 468 (Lomas de Zamora).
_Description._--Above grey; ear-coverts blackish; wings in interior rufous, which shows more or less externally: beneath white, greyish on the throat; tail-feathers, except the two central which are like the back, black broadly tipped with white; bill with the lower mandible orange-yellow, except at the tip: whole length 12·0 inches, wing 5·7, tail 5·7. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ North and Central America and Colombia; occasional in Brazil and Argentina.
This is a well-known inhabitant of the United States, where it is a regular summer visitant, passing the winter months in Central America and the West Indies, and being also occasionally met with during this season in Brazil. In the Argentine Republic it is very rare, and the few specimens found were all seen late in the autumn, after other summer visitors had left. I can only account for the lateness of these birds on the supposition that, being low fliers, excessively shy, and eminently forest birds, they shrunk from traversing the wide open plains which offer no kind of shelter or protection, and so remained in the isolated plantations which rise like little islands of greenery in the sea-like level of the pampas.
272. COCCYZUS MELANOCORYPHUS, Vieill.
(BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO.)
+Coccyzus melanocoryphus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 108; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 186 (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 28 (Entrerios); _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 468 (Lomas de Zamora). +Coccyzus seniculus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 444 (Paraná, Tucuman).
_Description._--Above pale greyish brown; head cinereous; a black stripe through the eyes: beneath white, more or less tinged with ochraceous; tail black, tipped with white; two central rectrices like the back; bill black: whole length 11·5 inches, wing 4·7, tail 5·7. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ South America.
The "Coucou," so called from its note, is the commonest species of the genus in the Argentine Republic, and has an extensive range in South America. In September it migrates south, and a pair or a few individuals reappear faithfully every spring in every orchard or plantation on the pampas. At intervals its voice is heard amidst the green trees--deep, hoarse, and somewhat human-like in sound, the song or call being composed of a series of notes, like the syllables _cou-cou-cou_, beginning loud and full and becoming more rapid until at the end they run together. It is a shy bird, conceals itself from prying eyes in the thickest foliage, moves with ease and grace amongst the closest twigs, and feeds principally on large winged insects, for which it searches amongst the weeds and bushes near the ground.
The nest is the flimsiest structure imaginable, being composed of a few dry twigs, evidently broken by the bird from the trees and not picked up from the ground. They are laid across each other to make a platform nest, but so small and flat is it that the eggs frequently fall out from it. That a bird should make no better preparation than this for the great business of propagation seems very wonderful. The eggs are three or four in number, elliptical in form, and of a dull sea-green colour.
273. COCCYZUS CINEREUS, Vieill.
(CINEREOUS CUCKOO.)
[Plate XIII.]
+Coccyzus cinereus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 108; _Hudson, P. Z. S._ 1870, p. 88 (Buenos Ayres); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 620 (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 28 (Entrerios); _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 468 (Lomas de Zamora).
_Description._--Above cinereous, wings blackish; tail above blackish, beneath cinereous; lateral rectrices tipped with white: beneath, throat and breast pale cinereous, passing into white in the middle of the belly; under wing-coverts, flanks, and crissum ochraceous; bill black: whole length 9·0 inches, wing 4·5, tail 4·5. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ Paraguay and Argentine Republic.
The Cinereous Cuckoo is smaller than the preceding species, and also differs in having a square tail and a more curved beak. The beak is black, and the irides blood-red, which contrasts well with the blue-grey of the head, giving the bird a bold and striking appearance.
This species is not common, but it is, I believe, slowly extending its range southwards, as within the last few years it has become much more common than formerly. Like other Cuckoos, it is retiring in its habits, concealing itself in the dense foliage, and it cannot be attracted by an imitation of its call, an expedient which never fails with the Coucou. Its language has not that deep mysterious, or _monkish_ quality, as it has been aptly called, of other _Coccyzi_. Its usual song or call, which it repeats at short intervals all day long during the love-season, resembles the song of our little dove (_Columbula picui_), and is composed of several long monotonous notes, loud, rather musical, but not at all plaintive. It also has a loud harsh cry, which one finds it hard to believe to be the voice of a Cuckoo, as in character it is more like the scream of a Dendrocolaptine species.
The figure (Plate XIII.) is taken from a specimen of this species obtained by Mr. Frank Withington in the Lomas de Zamora, and now in Sclater's collection.
274. COCCYZUS PUMILUS, Strickl.
(DWARF CUCKOO.)
+Coccyzus pumilus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 108; _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 28, (Entrerios).
_Description._--Above brownish cinereous, head grey; tail like the back, but tail-end black with narrow white tips: beneath, throat and breast chestnut-red; abdomen white; under wing-coverts and crissum ochraceous: whole length 9·0 inches, wing 4·0, tail 4·2. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ South America.
Of this little Cuckoo, the smallest of the genus _Coccyzus_, specimens were obtained by Mr. Barrows at Concepcion in Entrerios, in the month of December. The species was only previously known to occur in Venezuela and Colombia.
Fam. XXVIII. RHAMPHASTIDÆ, or TOUCANS.
In the second edition of his 'Monograph of the Toucans,' Gould admits 51 species of this fine and peculiar group, which are scattered over the forests of Tropical America, from Southern Mexico to Northern Argentina. Several others have been since described.
The Toucans are large birds exclusively arboreal in their habits, and feeding mostly, if not entirely, upon fruit. A single species of wide distribution reaches its southern limit in the forests of the northern Argentine provinces.
275. RHAMPHASTOS TOCO, Gm.
(TOCO TOUCAN.)
+Rhamphastos toco+, _Gould, Mon. Rhamphast._ ed. 2, pl. i.; _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 108; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 620 (Oran and Misiones).
_Description._--Above black; rump white, with a small scarlet patch on each side: beneath black, throat white; crissum scarlet; bill yellow, with a black blotch at the end of the upper mandible; feet brown: whole length 22·0 inches, wing 9·5, tail 6·5. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ Guiana, Amazonia, Brazil, Paraguay, and N. Argentina.
White met with this Toucan among the lofty forest trees at Campo Colorado, near Oran, where it was found in flocks. In Misiones it was more abundant, and was said to commit great havoc among the orange-groves.
Order V. PSITTACI.
Fam. XXIX. PSITTACIDÆ, or PARROTS.
Dr. Finsch's history of the Parrot tribe, published in 1867, included accounts of about 350 species, to which at least 50 more have been added during these last twenty years, so that upwards of 400 Parrots are now known to science. Of these, about 150 belong to the New World, mostly to the intertropical portion, though Parrots are found as far north as the U.S., and as far south as Chili and Patagonia.
In the Argentine Republic the presence of ten species of Psittacidæ has been recorded, but only two of these are found in the vicinity of Buenos Ayres, the remaining eight being restricted to the more northern and western portions of the country.
276. CONURUS PATAGONUS (Vieill).
(PATAGONIAN PARROT.)
+Conurus patagonus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 441; _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 111; _Scl. P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 549 (Rio Negro), et 1873, p. 761; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 186 (Buenos Ayres), et 1878, p. 396 (Chupat); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 620 (Catamarca); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 28 (Bahia Blanca). +Conurus patachonicus+, _Darwin, Zool. Beagle_, iii. p. 113 (Bahia Blanca).
_Description._--Above dark olive-green, forehead darker; wings edged with bluish, lower back yellow: beneath olive-green, darker on throat; band across the neck whitish; belly yellow, with a large patch in the middle and the thighs red: whole length 18·0 inches, wing 9·2, tail 10·5. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ Argentina and Patagonia.
This Parrot, called in La Plata the Bank- or Burrowing-Parrot, from its nesting-habits, is the only member of its order found so far south as Patagonia. In habits it differs somewhat from most of its congeners, and it may be regarded, I think, as one of those species which are dying out--possibly owing to the altered conditions resulting from the settlement of the country by Europeans. It was formerly abundant on the southern pampas of La Plata, and being partially migratory its flocks ranged in winter to Buenos Ayres, and even as far north as the Paraná river. When, as a child, I lived near the capital city (Buenos Ayres), I remember that I always looked forward with the greatest delight to the appearance of these noisy dark-green winter visitors. Now they are rarely seen within a hundred miles of Buenos Ayres; and I have been informed by old gauchos that half a century before my time they invariably appeared in immense flocks in winter, and have since gradually diminished in numbers, until now in that district the Bank-Parrot is almost a thing of the past. Two or three hundred miles south of Buenos Ayres city they are still to be met with in rather large flocks, and have a few ancient breeding-places, to which they cling very tenaciously. Where there are trees or bushes on their feeding-ground they perch on them; they also gather the berries of the _Empetrum rubrum_ and other fruits from the bushes; but they feed principally on the ground, and, while the flock feeds, one bird is invariably perched on a stalk or other elevation to act as sentinel. They are partial to the seeds of the giant thistle (_Carduus mariana_), and the wild pumpkin, and to get at the latter they bite the hard dry shell into pieces with their powerful beaks. When a horseman appears in the distance they rise in a compact flock, with loud harsh screams, and hover above him, within a very few yards of his head, their combined dissonant voices producing an uproar which is only equalled in that pandemonium of noises, the Parrot-house in the Zoological Gardens of London. They are extremely social, so much so that their flocks do not break up in the breeding-season; and their burrows, which they excavate in a perpendicular cliff or high bank, are placed close together; so that when the gauchos take the young birds--esteemed a great delicacy--the person who ventures down by means of a rope attached to his waist is able to rifle a whole colony. The burrow is three to five feet deep, and four white eggs are deposited on a slight nest at the extremity. I have only tasted the old birds, and found their flesh very bitter, scarcely palatable.
The natives say that this species cannot be taught to speak; and it is certain that the few individuals I have seen tame were unable to articulate.
Doubtless these Parrots were originally stray colonists from the tropics, although now resident in so cold a country as Patagonia. When viewed closely, one would also imagine that they must at one time have been brilliant-plumaged birds; but either natural selection, or the direct effect of a bleak climate, has given a sombre shade to their colours--green, blue, yellow, and crimson; and when seen flying at a distance, or in cloudy weather, they look as dark as crows.
277. CONURUS ACUTICAUDATUS (Vieill.).
(SHARP-TAILED PARROT.)
+Conurus acuticaudatus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 111; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 621 (Catamarca). +Conurus fugax+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 441. +Conurus glaucifrons+ _Leybold, Leopoldina_, Heft viii. p. 52 (1873).
_Description._--Above and beneath green; top of head and cheeks bluish; inner margins of wing-feathers yellowish grey; inner webs of tail-feathers at their bases red; upper mandible pale whitish, lower black: whole length 13·0 inches, wing 7·5, tail 7·0. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ Bolivia, Paraguay, and N. Argentina.
White obtained specimens of this Parrot near Andalgala in Catamarca in September 1880. He tells us that it is not very abundant in that district, and flies very swiftly in flocks of seven or eight, screeching continually when on the wing.
278. CONURUS MITRATUS, Tsch.
(RED-HEADED PARROT.)
+Conurus mitratus+, _Tsch. Faun. Per., Av._ p. 272, t. xxvi. f. 2; _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 112. +Conurus hilaris+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 442 (Tucuman); _id. Wiegm. Arch._ 1879, pt. i. p. 100; _id. P. Z. S._ 1878, p. 75.
_Description._--Bright green; front and sides of head red: beneath rather paler; under wing-coverts green; lower surface of tail yellowish; in some specimens with irregular patches of red on the neck and breast; bill pale; feet brown: whole length 14·0 inches, wing 8·0, tail 7·0.
_Hab._ Peru, Bolivia, and Northern Argentina.
Dr. Burmeister met with this Parrot near Tucuman, where he found it "very common, especially in winter." At first he made a new species of it, but afterwards recognized its identity with _Conurus mitratus_ of Tschudi.
Dr. Burmeister has kindly sent two specimens of this bird to Sclater, for his collection. Sclater has also examples of the same species procured by Schulz near Cordova, and in Bolivia by Bridges.
279. CONURUS MOLINÆ, Mass. et Souanc.
(MOLINA'S PARROT.)
[Plate XIV.]
+Conurus molinæ+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 112; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 621 (Salta).
_Description._--Above green; crown brown; nape bluish; cheeks green; wings edged with blue; tail coppery red: beneath green, breast and sides of neck whity brown, with dark cross bars; middle of belly dull red: whole length 9·5 inches, wing 5·0, tail 5·3. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ Bolivia, S. Brazil, and N. Argentina.
White met with this Parrot in the dense forests of Campo Colorado near Oran, where it is found in flocks of about twenty, "their flight being limited, for the most part, to the clear aisles beneath the branches." White's specimen in Sclater's collection, from which our figure (Plate XIV.) is taken, agrees with others of the species obtained by Natterer in Mato Grosso.
280. BOLBORHYNCHUS MONACHUS (Bodd.).
(GREEN PARRAKEET.)
+Conurus murinus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 441; _Darwin, Zool. Beagle_, iii. p. 112 (Paraná). +Bolborhynchus monachus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 113; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 186 (Buenos Ayres); _Gibson, Ibis_, 1880, p. 3 (Buenos Ayres); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 621 (Catamarca, Santiago del Estero); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 28 (Entrerios); _Burm. P. Z. S._ 1878, p. 77.
_Description._--Green; front grey, with paler margins to the feathers; wings blackish, with slight bluish edgings: beneath grey, with lighter margins to the breast-feathers; under wing-coverts, flanks, and crissum pale green; bill whitish: whole length 11·0 inches, wing 5·5, tail 5·3. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina.
The Common Green Parrakeet, called _Cotorra_ or _Catita_ in the vernacular, is a well-known resident species in the Argentine Republic. It is a lively restless bird, shrill-voiced, and exceedingly vociferous, living and breeding in large communities, and though it cannot learn to speak so distinctly as some of the larger Parrots, it is impossible to observe its habits without being convinced that it shares in the intelligence of the highly-favoured order to which it belongs.
In Buenos Ayres it was formerly very much more numerous than it is now; but it is exceedingly tenacious of its breeding-places, and there are some few favoured localities where it still exists in large colonies, in spite of the cruel persecution all birds easily killed are subjected to in a country where laws relating to such matters are little regarded, and where the agricultural population is chiefly Italian. At Mr. Gibson's residence near Cape San Antonio, on the Atlantic coast, there is still a large colony of these birds inhabiting the Tala woods (_Celtis tala_), and I take the following facts from one of his papers on the ornithology of the district.
He describes the woods as being full of their nests, with their bright-coloured talkative denizens and their noisy chatter all day long drowning every other sound. They are extremely sociable and breed in communities. When a person enters the wood their subdued chatter suddenly ceases, and during the ominous silence a hundred pairs of black beady eyes survey the intruder from the nests and branches; and then follows a whirring of wings and an outburst of screams that spreads the alarm throughout the woods. The nests are frequented all the year, and it is rare to find a large one unattended by some of the birds any time during the day. In summer and autumn they feed principally on the thistle; first the flower is cut up and pulled to pieces for the sake of the green kernel, and later they eat the fallen seed on the ground. Their flight is rapid, with quick flutters of the wings, which seem never to be raised to the level of the body. They pay no regard to a _Polyborus_ or _Milvago_, but mob any other bird of prey appearing in the woods, all the Parrakeets rising in a crowd and hovering about it with angry screams.
The nests are suspended from the extremities of the branches, to which they are firmly woven. New nests consist of only two chambers, the porch and the nest proper, and are inhabited by a single pair of birds. Successive nests are added, until some of them come to weigh a quarter of a ton, and contain material enough to fill a large cart. Thorny twigs, firmly interwoven, form the only material, and there is no lining in the breeding-chamber, even in the breeding-season. Some old forest trees have seven or eight of these huge structures suspended from the branches, while the ground underneath is covered with twigs and remains of fallen nests. The entrance to the chamber is generally underneath, or if at the side is protected by an overhanging eave to prevent the intrusion of opossums. These entrances lead into the porch or outer chamber, and the latter communicates with the breeding-chamber. The breeding-chambers are not connected with each other, and each set is used by one pair of birds.
The number of pairs does not exceed a dozen, even with the largest nests. Repairs are carried on all the year round, but new nests are only added at the approach of spring. Opossums are frequently found in one of the higher chambers, when the entrance has been made too high, but though they take up their abode there they cannot reach the other chambers, and the Parrakeets refuse to go away. A species of Teal (probably _Querquedula brasiliensis_) also sometimes occupies and breeds in their chambers, and in one case Mr. Gibson found an opossum domiciled in an upper chamber, Parrakeets occupying all the others except one, in which a Teal was sitting on eggs.
The breeding-season begins about November 1, and as many as seven or eight eggs are laid; these are dull white, very thin-shelled, elongated, and have the greatest diameter exactly equidistant from the two ends.
Mr. Barrows speaks as follows of this species in Entrerios:--"An abundant and familiar bird in the neighbourhood of Concepcion through the entire year. It is commonly seen in flocks of twenty and upwards, visiting grain-fields, gardens, &c., and sometimes, if I was correctly informed, it has appeared in flocks of tens of thousands, completely stripping the grain-fields. They nest in communities, many pairs uniting in the building of a large common nest or mass of nests. I only saw these nests on two occasions, and had no opportunity of examining their structure. They were placed on high trees, and appeared from below to be simply irregular masses, six or eight feet in diameter, formed of small sticks and twigs. Where the nests are abundant the natives destroy the young by hundreds, and the 'squabs' when nearly grown are said to be very fine eating. The young are easily tamed, and may be taught to articulate a few simple words."
281. BOLBORHYNCHUS AYMARA (d'Orb.).
(AYMARA PARRAKEET.)
[Plate XV.]
+Conurus aymara+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 442 (Mendoza). +Bolborhynchus aymara+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 113; _White, P. Z. S._ 1883, p. 40 (Cordova). +Conurus brunniceps+, _Burm. Journ. f. Orn._ 1860, p. 243.
_Description._--Above green; head earthy brown: beneath pale grey, nearly white on the sides of the head; under wing-coverts, flanks, lower belly, and crissum pale green; under surface of wings and tail blackish; beak whitish: whole length 7·0 inches, wing 3·9, tail 4·0. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ Bolivia and N. Argentina.
Prof. Burmeister found this Parrakeet not uncommon on the borders of the sierra near Mendoza. White met with it near Cosquin in the province of Cordova, in flocks on the mountain-tops, about 3500 feet above the sea-level. He says it is called "_Catita de las sierras_," and that it never descends to the valleys. Its flight is very swift, and is accompanied by a sort of chirping.
The figure (Plate XV.) is taken from a specimen in Sclater's collection, obtained by Buckley in Bolivia.
282. BOLBORHYNCHUS RUBRIROSTRIS (Burm.).
(RED-BILLED PARRAKEET.)
+Conurus rubrirostris+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 442; _id. P. Z. S._ 1878, p. 77. +Bolborhynchus rubrirostris+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 113.
_Description._--Uniform green; wing-feathers blackish, edged with blue; bill rosy red: whole length 7·0 inches, wing 5·0, tail 2·8.
_Hab._ Argentina.
Prof. Burmeister discovered this little Parrot, of which we have never seen specimens, in the ravines of the Sierra of Uspallata, and also met with it in the Sierra of Cordova. It lives in small flocks, which fly away screaming when approached.
283. CHRYSOTIS VINACEA (Max.).
(VINACEOUS AMAZON.)
+Chrysotis vinacea+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 113; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 621 (Misiones).
_Description._--Above green, feathers of neck and back edged with blackish; front, lores, and wing-spot scarlet; beneath paler, throat and breast vinaceous, feathers edged with blackish; bend of wing and base of tail-feathers scarlet: whole length 14·0 inches, wing 7·2, tail 4·7. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ S. Brazil, Paraguay, and N. Argentina.
This Parrot, which is enumerated by Azara among the birds of Paraguay, was also found by White in the adjoining district of Misiones in the Argentine Republic. White gives us the following notes on its habits:--"Both in Concepcion and San Javier these Parrots are found in incredible numbers feeding in the orange-groves which cover and enclose the extensive Jesuit ruins of those parts of Misiones. They seem to be very voracious, as they feed all day long; and the inhabitants shoot them for food; but they are not easily scared, for on hearing a shot they only fly up in clouds to descend again, meanwhile making the air resound with their shrill cries. They can be taught to talk tolerably well if taken young."
284. CHRYSOTIS ÆSTIVA (Linn.).
(BLUE-FRONTED AMAZON.)
+Chrysotis æstiva+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 114; _Salvin, Ibis_, 1880, p. 361 (Salta). +Psittacus amazonicus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 443 (?). +Chrysotis amazonica+, _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 621 (?).
_Description._--Above green, feathers edged with blackish; crown yellow; front blue; wing-patch scarlet: beneath green, cheeks and throat yellow; bend of wings and inner base of tail scarlet: whole length 15·0 inches, wing 8·5, tail 5·0. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ Brazil, Paraguay, and N. Argentina.
Durnford obtained a specimen of this Parrot near Salta in the province of Oran, which has been identified by Mr. Salvin. It is probable that the birds referred to _C. amazonica_ by Prof. Burmeister and White may belong to this same species.
285. PIONUS MAXIMILIANI (Kuhl).
(PRINCE MAXIMILIAN'S PARROT.)
+Pionus maximiliani+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 114; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 622 (Salta).
_Description._--Dark green; lores blackish; feathers of nape dirty white margined with green; front and cheeks bluish: beneath dusky green, crissum scarlet: whole length 9·0 inches, wing 6·5, tail 3·2. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ Brazil and N. Argentina.
White obtained a single specimen of this Parrot in the dense forests of the Rio Vermejo, near Oran, in November 1880.
Order VI. STRIGES.
About 40 different species of the nocturnal birds of prey are known to occur in the Neotropical Region. Six of them have been recorded as being found more or less frequently within the limits of the Argentine Republic. Of these, the Burrowing-Owl (_Pholeoptynx cunicularia_) is one of the most characteristic inhabitants of the Argentine Pampas, while two others, the Barn-Owl and the Short-eared Owl, are very widely diffused species, also well known in England.
Fam. XXX. STRIGIDÆ, or BARN-OWLS.
286. STRIX FLAMMEA, Linn.
(COMMON BARN-OWL.)
+Strix flammea+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 116; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 187 (Buenos Ayres); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 622 (Misiones); _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 468 (Lomas de Zamora); _Sharpe, Cat. B._ ii. p. 291. +Aluco flammeus+, _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 29 (Entrerios). +Strix perlata+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 440; _Döring, Exp. al Rio Negro_, p. 49.
_Description._--Above orange-brown, marbled with ashy and white, and dotted with black spots with central white points; wings and tail crossed by four or five blackish bands; face silvery white, with a posterior and inferior border of orange-brown and black: beneath white, more or less suffused with tawny, except on the lower belly, and dotted with distinct rounded black spots; bill yellowish; tarsus feathered; toes slightly bristled; claws long and sharp: whole length 15·0 inches, wing 12·5, tail 5·0. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ Old and New Worlds.
This widely distributed species is found throughout South America; and in its habits and sepulchral voice, as well as in its pretty reddish buff, grey, and white plumage, is identical with the European bird. D'Orbigny expressed astonishment that this Owl, which is never seen in uninhabited places, invariably appears to keep company with man wherever a settlement is formed, even in the most lonely and isolated spots. Probably it is much more numerous than most people imagine, sheltering itself everywhere in caverns and hollow trees, so that it is always present, and ready to take early advantage of the commodious church-tower or other large building raised by man. On the level pampas, where there are no hills or suitable hiding-places, it is rarely seen: it is exclusively a town bird.
Nothing more need be said of the habits of a species so well known, and about which there is so much recorded in general works of Natural History.
Fam. XXXI. BUBONIDÆ, or OWLS.
287. ASIO BRACHYOTUS (Forst.).
(SHORT-EARED OWL.)
+Otus palustris+, _Darwin, Zool. Beagle_, iii. p. 33. +Otus brachyotus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 116; _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 439 (Rosario); _Hudson, P. Z. S._ 1870, p. 800 (Buenos Ayres); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 186 (Buenos Ayres), et 1878, p. 396 (Patagonia). +Asio brachyotus+, _Gibson, Ibis_, 1879, p. 423 (Buenos Ayres); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 622 (Buenos Ayres); _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 468 (Lomas de Zamora). +Asio accipitrinus+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ ii. p. 234.
_Description._--Above streaked and variegated with fulvous and blackish brown; face whitish, with a large central blotch of blackish round the eye; wings pale tawny white, with several irregular broad blackish cross bars; tail whitish, with four or five broad black cross bands: beneath as above, but much whiter on the belly, which is only slightly streaked, and without markings on the crissum and thighs; bill black; tarsi and toes densely feathered: whole length 15·0 inches, wing 13·0, tail 6·0. _Female_ similar, but rather larger.
_Hab._ Old and New Worlds.
The Short-eared Owl is found throughout the Argentine country, where it is commonly called _Lechuzon_ (big Owl) in the vernacular. Like the species last described--the Barn-Owl--it has an exceedingly wide range. It is found throughout the continent of Europe; it also inhabits Asia and Africa, many of the Pacific Islands, and both Americas, from Canada down to the Straits of Magellan. Such a very wide distribution would seem to indicate that it possesses some advantage over its congeners, and is (as an Owl) more perfect than others. It is rather more diurnal in its habits than most Owls, and differs structurally from other members of its order in having a much smaller head. It is also usually said to be a weak flier; but this I am sure is a great mistake, for it seems to me the strongest flier amongst Owls, and very migratory in its habits, or, at any rate, very much given to wandering. Probably its very extensive distribution is due in some measure to a greater adaptability than is possessed by most species; also to its better sight in the daytime, and to its wandering disposition, which enables it to escape a threatened famine, and to seize on unoccupied or favourable ground.
The bird loves an open country, and sits by day on the ground concealed amongst the herbage or tall grass. An hour before sunset it quits its hiding-place, and is seen perched on a bush or tall stalk, or sailing about a few feet above the ground with a singularly slow, heron-like flight; and at intervals while flying it smites its wings together under its breast in a quick sudden manner. It is not at all shy, the intrusion of a man or dog in the field it frequents only having the effect of exciting its indignation. An imitation of its cry will attract all the individuals within hearing about a person, and any loud unusual sound, like the report of a gun, produces the same effect. When alarmed or angry it utters a loud hiss, and at times a shrill laugh-like cry. It also has a dismal scream, not often heard; and at twilight hoots, this part of its vocal performance sounding not unlike the distant baying of a mastiff or a bloodhound. It breeds on the ground, clearing a circular spot, and sometimes, but not often, lining it with a scanty bed of dry grass. The eggs are three or four, white, and nearly spherical.
The Short-eared Owl was formerly common everywhere on the pampas, where the coarse indigenous grasses afforded the shelter and conditions best suited to it. When in time this old rough vegetation gave place to the soft perishable grasses and clovers, accidentally introduced by European settlers, the Owl disappeared from the country, like the large Tinamou (_Rhynchotis rufescens_), the Red-bellied Finch (_Embernagra platensis_), and various other species; for the smooth level plains afforded it no shelter. Now, however, with the spread of cultivation, it has reappeared, and is once more becoming a common bird in the more thickly-settled districts.
288. BUBO VIRGINIANUS (Gm.).
(VIRGINIAN OWL.)
+Bubo virginianus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 116; _Scl. P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 549 (Rio Negro); _White, P. Z. S._ 1883, p. 433 (Cordova); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 29 (Gualeguaychú). +Bubo crassirostris+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 439 (Mendoza). +Bubo magellanicus+, _d'Orb. Voy. Ois._ p. 137; _Salv. Ibis_, 1880, p. 361 (Salta); _Sharpe, Cat. B._ ii. p. 29.
_Description._--Above dull tawny buff, more or less densely mottled with blackish brown; ear-tufts long, blackish, mixed with tawny buff; wings tawny buff, with about seven blackish cross bands; tail tawny buff, tipped with whitish, and with about seven blackish cross bands: beneath dull ochraceous buff, with dusky brown cross lines; throat-collar whitish: whole length 19·5 inches, wing 14·5, tail 8·5. _Female_ similar, but rather larger.
_Hab._ North and South America.
This bird, eagle-like in its dimensions, and the largest of our Owls, is found throughout both Americas, though some authors, relying on certain trivial variations in size and colour, have separated the southern from the northern form, and called it _Bubo magellanicus_. In the Argentine Republic it is well known by its Indian name "Ñacurutú"; also in Paraguay according to Azara, who says:--"It pronounces its own name in tones which scare such as pass by night through the deep woods, which are its palaces."
The habits of the Virginian Owl are too well known to need to be rewritten in this place: the ornithologists of North America have supplied several biographies of it, that by Audubon being specially familiar.
289. SCOPS BRASILIANUS (Gm.).
(CHOLIBA OWL.)
+Scops brasilianus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 117; _White, P. Z. S._ 1883, p. 41 (Cordova); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 29 (Entrerios); _Sharpe, Cat. B._ ii. p. 108.
_Description._--Above brown, vermiculated with darker brown, and spotted and streaked more or less distinctly with black; neck-collar lighter; wings dark brown, regularly barred across with sandy rufous; tail dark brown, with about ten regular cross bars of sandy rufous: beneath dirty white, washed with buff, densely crossed with narrow zigzag lines of blackish brown: whole length 9·5 inches, wing 6·2, tail 3·7. _Female_ similar, but rather larger.
_Hab._ South America.
Azara and d'Orbigny have described the habits of this Owl, which is common in Paraguay and in the Argentine State of Corrientes, the name for it in both countries being _Choliba_. It is a bird of the woods, strictly nocturnal, lives in pairs, and spends the day in a thick-foliaged tree, the male and female sitting close together. At night it comes a great deal about houses, where it diligently explores every corner in search of cockroaches and other vermin, and in this way commends itself to the country people, who esteem it highly, and often keep it tame in their homes. Its hoot, described as sounding like _tururú-tú-tú_, is not unpleasant to the ear, and is a familiar sound to all who traverse the woody paths by night. It breeds in deep woods, and lays three white eggs in a hollow tree without any nest.
Barrows found it common in Corrientes along the wooded water-courses, and says it has a soft tremulous cry. He tells us there are two varieties of it in colour, red and grey, and gives _Caburé_ as the native name.
290. SPEOTYTO CUNICULARIA (Mol.).
(BURROWING-OWL.)
+Athene cunicularia+, _Darwin, Zool. Beagle_, iii. p. 31. +Noctua cunicularia+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 440; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 38, et 1878, p. 397 (Patagonia). +Pholeoptynx cunicularia+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 117; _Hudson, P. Z. S._ 1874, p. 308 (Buenos Ayres); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 186 (Buenos Ayres); _Gibson, Ibis_, 1879, p. 423 (Buenos Ayres); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 622 (Catamarca, Misiones). +Speotyto cunicularia+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ ii. p. 142; _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 30 (Entrerios); _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 469 (Lomas de Zamora).
_Description._--Above dark sandy brown, with large oval spots of white and smaller spots and freckles of pale brown; wings and tail dark brown, with broad whitish cross bars; facial disk greyish brown, surrounded by white: beneath white, sides of breast marked with broad bars of brown, which become fainter on the belly; lower belly, thighs, and crissum pure white; tarsi feathered; toes slightly bristled: whole length 10·0 inches, wing 7·5, tail 3·5. _Female_ similar, but rather larger.
_Hab._ North and South America.
The Burrowing-Owl is abundant everywhere on the pampas of Buenos Ayres and avoids woods, but not districts abounding in scattered trees and bushes. It sees much better than most Owls by day, and never affects concealment nor appears confused by diurnal sounds and the glare of noon. It stares fixedly--"with insolence," Azara says--at a passer-by, following him with the eyes, the round head turning about as on a pivot. If closely approached it drops its body or bobs in a curious fashion, emitting a brief scream, followed by three abrupt ejaculations; and if made to fly goes only fifteen or twenty yards away, and alights again with face towards the intruder; and no sooner does it alight than it repeats the odd gesture and scream, standing stiff and erect, and appearing beyond measure astonished at the intrusion. By day it flies near the surface with wings continuously flapping, and invariably before alighting glides upwards for some distance and comes down very abruptly. It frequently runs rapidly on the ground, and is incapable of sustaining flight long. Gaucho boys pursue these birds for sport on horseback, taking them after a chase of fifteen or twenty minutes. They live in pairs all the year, and sit by day at the mouth of their burrow or on the Vizcacha's mound, the two birds so close together as to be almost touching; when alarmed they both fly away, but sometimes the male only, the female diving into the burrow. On the pampas it may be more from necessity than choice that they always sit on the ground, as they are usually seen perched on the summits of bushes where such abound, as in Patagonia.
These are the commonest traits of the Burrowing-Owl in the settled districts, where it is excessively numerous and has become familiar with man; but in the regions hunted over by the Indians it is a scarce bird and has different habits. Shy of approach as a persecuted game fowl, it rises to a considerable height in the air when the approaching traveller is yet far off, and flies often beyond sight before descending again to the earth. This wildness of disposition is, without doubt, due to the active animosity of the pampas-tribes, who have all the ancient wide-spread superstitions regarding the Owl. Sister of the Evil Spirit is one of their names for it; they hunt it to death whenever they can, and when travelling will not stop to rest or encamp on a spot where an Owl has been spied. Where the country is settled by Europeans the bird has dropped its wary habits and become extremely tame. They are tenacious of the spot they live in, and are not easily driven out by cultivation. When the fields are ploughed up they make their kennels on their borders, or at the roadsides, and sit all day perched on the posts of the fences.
Occasionally they are seen preying by day, especially when anything passes near them, offering the chance of an easy capture. I have often amused myself by throwing bits of hard clay near one as it sat beside its kennel; for the bird will immediately give chase, only discovering its mistake when the object is firmly clutched in its talons. When there are young to be fed, they are almost as active by day as by night. On hot November days multitudes of a large species of _Scarabæus_ appear, and the bulky bodies and noisy bungling flights of these beetles invite the Owls to pursuit, and on every side they are seen pursuing, and striking down the beetles, and tumbling upon them in the grass. Owls have a peculiar manner of taking their prey: they grapple it so tightly in their talons that they totter and strive to steady themselves by throwing out their wings, and, sometimes losing their balance, fall prostrate and flutter on the ground. If the animal captured be small they proceed after a while to dispatch it with the beak; if large they usually rise laboriously from the ground and fly to some distance with it, thus giving time for the wounds inflicted by the claws to do their work.
At sunset the Owls begin to hoot; a short followed by a long note is repeated many times with an interval of a second of silence. There is nothing dreary or solemn in this performance; the voice is rather soft and sorrowful, somewhat resembling the lowest notes of the flute in sound. In spring they hoot a great deal, many individuals responding to each other.
In the evening they are often seen hovering at a height of forty feet above the surface, and continuing to do so fully a minute or longer without altering their position. They do not drop the whole distance at once on their prey, but descend vertically, tumbling and fluttering as if wounded, to within ten yards of the earth, and then, after hovering a few seconds more, glide obliquely on to it. They prey on every living creature not too large to be overcome by them. Sometimes when a mouse is caught they tear off the head, tail, and feet, devouring only the body. The hind quarters of toads and frogs are almost invariably rejected; and inasmuch as these are the most fleshy and succulent parts, this is a strange and unaccountable habit. They make an easy conquest of a snake eighteen inches long, and kill it by dealing it blows with the beak, hopping briskly about it all the time, apparently to guard themselves with their wings. They prey largely on the common _Coronella anomala_, but I have never seen one attacking a venomous species. When they have young many individuals become destructive to poultry, coming about the houses and carrying off the chickens and ducklings by day. In seasons of plenty they destroy far more prey than they can devour; but in severe winters they come, apparently starving, about the houses, and will then stoop to carry off any dead animal food, though old and dried up as a piece of parchment. This I have often seen them do.
Though the Owls are always on familiar terms with the Vizcachas (_Lagostomus trichodactylus_) and occasionally breed in one of their disused burrows, as a rule they excavate a breeding-place for themselves. The kennel they make is crooked, and varies in length from four to twelve feet. The nest is placed at the extremity, and is composed of wool or dry grass, often exclusively of dry horse-dung. The eggs are usually five in number, white, and nearly spherical; the number, however, varies, and I have frequently found six or seven eggs in a nest. After the female has begun laying the birds continue carrying in dry horse-dung, until the floor of the burrow and a space before it is thickly carpeted with this material. The following spring the loose earth and rubbish is cleared out, for the same hole may serve them two or three years. It is always untidy, but mostly so during the breeding-season, when prey is very abundant, the floor and ground about the entrance being often littered with excrements, green beetle-shells, pellets of hair and bones, feathers of birds, hind quarters of frogs in all stages of decay, great hairy spiders (_Mygale_), remains of half-eaten snakes, and other unpleasant creatures that they subsist on. But all this carrion about the little Owl's disordered house reminds one forcibly of the important part the bird plays in the economy of nature. The young birds ascend to the entrance of the burrow to bask in the sun, and receive the food their parents bring; when approached they become irritated, snapping with their beaks, and retreat reluctantly into the hole; and for some weeks after leaving it they make it a refuge from danger. Old and young birds sometimes live together for four or five months. I believe that nine-tenths of the Owls on the pampas make their own burrows, but as they occasionally take possession of the forsaken holes of mammals to breed in, it is probable that they would always observe this last habit, if suitable holes abounded, as on the North-American prairies inhabited by the marmot. Probably our Burrowing-Owl originally acquired the habit of breeding in the ground in the open level regions it frequented; and when this habit (favourable as it must have been in such unsheltered situations) had become ineradicable, a want of suitable burrows would lead it to clean out such old ones as had become choked up with rubbish, to deepen such as were too shallow, and ultimately to excavate for itself. The mining instinct varies greatly in strength, even on the pampas. Some pairs, long mated, only begin to dig when the breeding-season is already on them; others make their burrows as early as April--that is six months before the breeding-season. Generally both birds work, one standing by and regarding operations with an aspect of grave interest, and taking its place in the pit when the other retires; but sometimes the female has no assistance from her partner, and the burrow then is very short. Some pairs work expeditiously and their kennel is deep and neatly made; others go about their task in a perfunctory manner, and begin, only to abandon, perhaps half a dozen burrows, and then rest two or three weeks from their unprofitable labours. But whether industrious or indolent, by September they all have their burrows made. I can only account for Azara's unfortunate statement, repeated since by scores of compilers, that the Owl never constructs its own habitations, by assuming that a century ago, when he lived and the country was still very sparsely settled, this Owl had not yet become so abundant or laid aside the wary habit the aborigines had taught it, so that he did not become very familiar with its habits.
291. GLAUCIDIUM NANUM (King).
(PYGMY OWL.)
+Glaucidium nanum+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 117; _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 441; _Scl. P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 549 (Rio Negro); _White, P. Z. S._ 1883, p. 41 (Cordova); _Döring, Exp. al Rio Negro_, p. 49 (Rio Negro); _Sharpe, Cat. B._ ii. p. 190.
_Description._--Above dull reddish brown, mottled with concealed spots and bars of ochraceous buff; scapulars with an ashy tinge; head more rufous and longitudinally streaked; whitish collar on the hind neck; wings dark brown, banded with rufous; tail dark brown, with about ten rufous bars, and tipped with whitish; cheeks and chin pure white, the latter divided by a dark brown throat-band from the white fore neck; abdomen white, streaked with dark brown: whole length 8·0 inches, wing 3·8, tail 2·9. _Female_ similar, but rather larger.
_Hab._ La Plata, Patagonia, and Chili.
This diminutive Owl, which barely reaches eight inches in length, and is light brown and grey in colour, was discovered by Captain King in 1827 in the neighbourhood of the Straits of Magellan. I met with it on the Rio Negro in Patagonia, but saw very little of it. It struck me that, like the Burrowing-Owl, it is not very strictly nocturnal, for I observed it in the daytime perched in exposed situations.
In 1882 White met with it in Cosquin, in Cordova, and made the following important note on its habits:--"It causes the naturalist much amusement to watch the habits of this pretty little Owl, that, perched perfectly motionless on a branch, utters such a sirenic cry as to attract little birds in great numbers. They are observed to cluster round it, all the while fluttering and in great excitement, charmed by some fascination. After waiting a while the Owl suddenly pounces upon the nearest for its victim."
I also observed little birds mobbing it, when it perched in a conspicuous place in the daytime, as they always mob small birds of prey, but was not so fortunate as to hear the "sirenic cry" with which the Cordova bird fascinates its victims. One has heard this yarn of a "sirenic cry" before, of other species, for it is a very common myth. That an Owl should now be fitted with the old melodious cap seems strange; and Mr. White is in error when he says that this habit in our bird "causes the _naturalist_ much amusement."
Order VII. ACCIPITRES.
Fam. XXXII. FALCONIDÆ, or FALCONS.
The diurnal birds of prey of the family Falconidæ found in the Neotropical Region number about 110 species, of which 22 are at present known to occur within the limits of the present work. It is probable, however, that many additional species of this group will be hereafter added to the Argentine list.
As is usually the case with the Accipitres, most of the species have an extensive distribution.
292. CIRCUS CINEREUS (Vieill.).
(CINEREOUS HARRIER.)
+Circus cinereus+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ i. p. 56; _Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S._ 1868, p. 143 (Buenos Ayres); _iid. Nomencl._ p. 118; _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 439 (Mendoza); _Scl. P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 536 (Rio Negro); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 38 (Patagonia) et p. 187 (Buenos Ayres), et 1878, p. 397 (Patagonia); _Gibson, Ibis_, 1879, p. 411 (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 30 (Bahia Blanca); _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 469 (Lomas de Zamora).
_Description._--Above bluish grey, with darker mottlings; wing-coverts with obsolete whitish edgings; primaries blackish; tail grey, with four black cross bands, and tipped with white: beneath, throat and neck like the back; abdomen thickly banded with white and rufous bars; under wing-coverts white; bill black; feet yellow; nails black: whole length 18·0 inches, wing 12·0, tail 8·2. _Female_: rather larger; above dark brown, with lighter brown spots and edgings; throat and fore neck like the back; wings beneath with black cross bands.
_Hab._ Southern portion of South America.
This Harrier is found throughout the Argentine Republic, and is also common in Patagonia and the Falkland Islands. On the pampas it is, I think, the most common bird of prey, after the excessively abundant _Milvago chimango_. Like the Chimango, it also prefers an open unwooded country, and resembles that bird not a little in its general appearance, and when in the brown stage of plumage may be easily mistaken for it. In the Falklands it has even acquired the Carrion Hawk's habits, for Darwin distinctly saw one feeding on a carcass there, very much to his surprise. On the pampas I have always found it a diligent bird-hunter, and its usual mode of proceeding is to drive up the bird from the grass and to pursue and strike it down with its claws. Mr. Gibson's account of its habits agrees with mine, and he says that "it will raise any small bird time after time, should the latter endeavour to conceal itself in the grass, preferring, as it would seem, to strike it on the wing." He further says:--"Its flight is low and rather rapid, while if its quarry should double it loses no ground, for it turns something in the manner of a Tumbler Pigeon, going rapidly head over heels in the most eccentric and amusing fashion."
Probably this Harrier has a partial migration, as a great many are always seen travelling across the pampas in the autumn and spring; many individuals, however, remain all winter.
The nest is made on the ground among long grass, or in reed-beds in marshy places, and the eggs are white blotched with dark red.
293. CIRCUS MACROPTERUS, Vieill.
(LONG-WINGED HARRIER.)
+Circus macropterus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 118; _iid. P. Z. S._ 1868, p. 143 (Buenos Ayres); _Döring, Exp. al Rio Negro_, p. 50 (Rio Colorado). +Buteo macropterus+, _d'Orb. Voy., Ois._ p. 112 (Buenos Ayres). +Circus maculosus+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ i. p. 62. +Circus megaspilus+, _Gould, Zool. Voy. Beagle_, iii. p. 29 (Uruguay).
_Description._--Above black; frontal band, superciliaries, and upper tail-coverts white; edge of facial ruff spotted with white; wing- and tail-feathers grey, with black cross bands: beneath white, chest and throat black, with some white streaks; under wing-coverts white, with narrow blackish cross bands: whole length 20·0 inches, wing 17·0, tail 10·0. _Female_ similar, but larger.
_Hab._ South America.
This Harrier is also found in the Republic, but is not so common as the former species.
294. ASTURINA PUCHERANI, Verr.
(PUCHERAN'S HAWK.)
+Asturina pucherani+, _Scl. et Salv. Ex. Orn._ pl. 89, p. 177; _iid. Nomencl._ p. 118; _iid. P. Z. S._ 1869, p. 634 (Buenos Ayres); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 187 (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 30 (Entrerios); _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 469 (Lomas de Zamora); _Sharpe, Cat. B._ i. p. 205.
_Description._--Above dark brown; upper tail-coverts fulvous barred with brown; wings deep chestnut, barred and broadly tipped with black; tail fulvous, with four blackish cross bands: beneath, abdomen pale ochraceous, barred across with rufous; throat blackish, with slight white stripes; breast ochraceous, with narrow black shaft-stripes; thighs ochraceous, narrowly barred with orange-rufous; bill black; feet dark yellow: whole length 18·0 inches, wing 11·0, tail 8·2. _Female_ similar, but rather larger.
_Hab._ South Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.
This brown-plumaged, short-winged, and exceedingly vociferous Hawk is common in the woods along the shores of the Plata and its tributaries, and is never found far removed from water. It perches on the summit of a tree, and sits there motionless for hours at a time, and at intervals utters singularly long loud cries, which become more frequent and piercing when the bird is disturbed, as by the approach of a person. Its flight is rapid and irregular, the short blunt wings beating unceasingly, while the bird pours out a succession of loud vehement broken screams.
Mr. Barrows observed it on the Lower Uruguay, and writes:--"It feeds largely if not exclusively on fish, nearly every specimen having their remains (and nothing else) in their stomachs." It would be very interesting to learn how it captures its prey.
295. BUTEO SWAINSONI, Bp.
(SWAINSON'S BUZZARD.)
[Plate XVI.]
+Buteo swainsoni+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 118; _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 469 (Lomas de Zamora); _Baird, Brew., et Ridgw. N. A. B._ iii. p. 263. +Buteo obsoletus+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ i. p. 184. +Buteo albicaudatus+, _Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S._ 1869, p. 634 (Buenos Ayres).
_Description._--Above blackish brown; scapulars slightly variegated with rufous; upper tail-coverts white, tinged with rufous; tail dark greyish brown, crossed by several ill-defined blackish bars: beneath white or pale ochraceous; a broad band covering the whole breast reddish brown; bill black; feet yellow; claws black: whole length 20·0 inches, wing 15·0, tail 8·5. _Female_ similar, but larger.
_Hab._ North and South America.
The figure given herewith (Plate XVI.) represents a fine adult female specimen of this Buzzard, obtained by Mr. Frank Withington at Lomas de Zamora, on the 4th of February, 1886, and now in Sclater's collection.
Swainson's Buzzard is a North-American species, which has only recently been ascertained to occur in the southern part of the Western Hemisphere. Full details concerning it are given in the standard work on "North-American Land-birds," to which we have referred above. Messrs. Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway divide the species into two subspecies, "_swainsoni_" and "_oxypterus_" to the latter of which they refer the southern specimens, but they acknowledge that it is "difficult to express points of absolute difference" between these subspecies.
It appears from what these authorities say (_l. c._ p. 268) that a young specimen procured by Hudson at Conchitas in 1860, and referred by Messrs. Salvin and Sclater with doubt to _B. albicaudatus_, really belongs to _B. swainsoni_. A second undoubtedly Argentine example is that procured by Mr. Withington and now figured.
Like other Buzzards, _B. swainsoni_ varies much in plumage, and occasionally assumes a melanistic form, under which it was described and figured by Sclater in 1858 as _Buteo fuliginosus_ (_cf._ P. Z. S. 1858, p. 356, and Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. iv. p. 267, pl. lxii.). Mr. Gurney is of opinion that d'Orbigny's _Buteo unicolor_ is also referable to this form of _B. swainsoni_ (_cf._ Ibis, 1889, p. 134).
A well-known writer on North-American birds (Capt. C. E. Bendire) gives the following account of the nesting of _Buteo swainsoni_ in Arizona:--
"This species is by far the commonest Hawk in the vicinity of Fort Huachuca, and a resident throughout the year. Lieutenant Benson found not less than forty-one of their nests containing eggs between May 14 and June 18, 1887. These were all placed in low mesquite trees and bushes, from 3 to 15 feet from the ground. Only six of these nests contained three eggs each, twenty-one nests contained two eggs, the remaining fourteen but a single egg. Many of the latter were undoubtedly laid by birds that had been robbed before, especially where the same nest was used again, which was frequently the case, and a few were uncompleted sets. Two eggs is the usual number laid by these birds, in Arizona at least. The nests were bulky platforms, composed of sticks of various sizes, with but a slight depression in the centre, and sparingly lined with a few bunches of dried grass. Lieutenant Benson writes me that after the Arkansas King-birds (_Tyrannus verticalis_, Say) began to build he invariably found one of their nests in any tree that contained a Swainson's Hawk's nest. In one case, a pair of these birds had placed their nest directly under, and but 8 or 9 inches from that of the Hawk. A pair of White-rumped Shrikes (_Lanius ludovicianns excubitoroides_) built also immediately below one of these Hawk's nests.
"When not closely looked at, many of the eggs of Swainson's Hawk appear to be unspotted, but on careful examination there are in reality but very few that are immaculate. Out of a series of sixty-nine specimens sent by Lieutenant Benson there are but three unspotted ones. The ground-colour of these eggs when fresh is a very distinct greenish white, which in course of time fades into a dull yellowish white, even if the eggs are not exposed to light. They are more or less heavily spotted and blotched, varying in colour from burnt-umber to tawny olive, and in some of the lighter coloured specimens from a French grey to a drab-grey. Their shape ranges from a short ovate to an oval, and they average about 2·23 by 1·71 inches in length and width."
296. BUTEO ALBICAUDATUS (Vieill.).
(WHITE-TAILED BUZZARD.)
+Buteo albicaudatus+, _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 187 (Buenos Ayres); _Döring, Exp. al Rio Negro_, p. 51 (Rio Negro); _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 469 (Lomas de Zamora). +Tachytriorchis albicaudatus+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ i. p. 162. +Buteo pterocles+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 119; _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 109 (Gualeguaychú); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 622 (Buenos Ayres).
_Description._--Above greyish black, scapulars and upper wing-coverts ferruginous; rump and tail white, the latter with a broad black subapical band, and with slight narrow transverse slaty bars: beneath, throat black, abdomen white, flanks more or less barred with brown; bill black; feet dirty yellow: whole length 21·0 inches, wing 18·0, tail 8·0. _Female_ similar, but rather larger.
_Hab._ Southern and Central America.
This Buzzard does not breed on the pampas, where I have observed it, but appears there in the spring and autumn, irregularly, when migrating, and in flocks which travel in a loitering, desultory manner. The flocks usually number from thirty or forty to a hundred birds, but sometimes many more. I have seen flocks which must have numbered from one to two thousand birds. When flying the flock is very much scattered, and does not advance in a straight line, but the birds move in wide circles at a great height in the air, so that a person on horseback travelling at a canter can keep directly under them for two or three hours. On the ground one of these large flocks will sometimes occupy an area of half a square league, so widely apart do the birds keep. I have dissected a great many and found nothing but coleopterous insects in their stomachs; and indeed they would not be able to keep in such large companies when travelling if they required a nobler prey.
At the end of one summer a flock numbering about two hundred birds appeared at an estancia near my home, and though very much disturbed they remained for about three months, roosting at night on the plantation trees, and passing the day scattered about the adjacent plain, feeding on grasshoppers and beetles. This flock left when the weather turned cold; but at another estancia a flock appeared later in the season and remained all winter. The birds became so reduced in flesh that after every cold rain or severe frost numbers were found dead under the trees where they roosted; and in that way most of them perished before the return of spring.
297. BUTEO ERYTHRONOTUS (King).
(RED-BACKED BUZZARD.)
+Buteo erythronotus+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ i. p. 172; _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 119; _Scl. P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 536 (Rio Negro); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 38, et 1878, p. 397 (Patagonia); _Salvin, Ibis_, 1880, p. 362 (Salta); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 109 (Azul); _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 469 (Lomas de Zamora). +Buteo tricolor+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 436 (Mendoza and Tucuman).
_Description._--Above slaty blue; wing-feathers slaty, with narrow transverse bars of black; upper tail-coverts and tail white, the latter with a broad black subapical band and numerous narrow grey cross bars: beneath white, with slight grey cross bars on the belly; bill black; feet dirty yellow: whole length 25 inches, wing 18·5, tail 10·0. _Female_ similar, but back deep chestnut.
_Hab._ Southern portion of South America.
This is a fine bird--the king of South-American Buzzards. In the adult female the three colours of the plumage are strongly contrasted; the back being rusty rufous, the rest of the upper parts grey, the whole under surface pure white. It is occasionally met with in the northern provinces of the Argentine Republic, but is most common in Patagonia; and it has been said that in that region it takes the place of the nearly allied _Buteo albicaudatus_ of Brazil. In habits, however, the two species are as different as it is possible for two raptores to be; for while the northern bird has a cowardly spirit, is, to some extent, gregarious, and feeds largely on insects, the Patagonian species has the preying habits of the Eagle, and lives exclusively, I believe, or nearly so, on cavies and other small mammals. When Captain King first discovered it in 1827, he described it as "a small beautiful Eagle." In Patagonia it is very abundant, and usually seen perched on the summit of a bush, its broad snowy-white bosom conspicuous to the eye at a great distance--one of the most familiar features in the monotonous landscape of that grey country. The English colonists on the Chupat, Durnford says, call it the "white horse," owing to its conspicuous white colour often deceiving them when they are out searching for strayed horses in the hills. It is a wary bird, and when approached has the habit of rising up in widening circles to a vast height in the air. When sailing about in quest of prey it usually maintains a height of fifty or sixty yards above the surface. The stomachs of all the individuals I have examined contained nothing but the remains of cavies (_Cavia australis_).
The nest is built on the top of a thorn bush, and is a large structure of sticks, lined with grass, fur, dry dung, and other materials. "The eggs are greyish white in colour, blotched and marked, principally towards the large end, with two shades of umber-brown" (_Gould_).
298. ANTENOR UNICINCTUS (Temm.).
(ONE-BANDED BUZZARD.)
+Asturina unicincta+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 436 (Mendoza). +Urubitinga unicincta+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 119; _Gibson, Ibis_, 1879, p. 411 (Buenos Ayres); _Salvin, Ibis_, 1880, p. 362 (Salta); _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 469 (Lomas de Zamora). +Antenor unicinctus+, _Ridgw. N. A. B._ iii. p. 249 (1874). +Erythrocnema unicincta+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ i. p. 85.
_Description._--Above black, upper wing-coverts chestnut; upper tail-coverts white; tail black, concealed base and tip white: beneath black; thighs deep ferruginous; crissum white: whole length 23·0 inches, wing 14·5, tail 9·5. _Female_ similar, but larger.
_Hab._ North and South America.
This is the Common Buzzard of the Plata region. It differs from the species previously described in its greater length of wing, and in the habit of flying near the ground when in search of prey; resembling in this respect a Harrier, only its flight is slower and more loitering. It prefers an open country, but on the pampas, like all large Hawks, it meets with great persecution from the ever-vigilant, fierce-tempered Spur-winged Lapwing. I once saw one of these Buzzards, while being so persecuted, make a conquest which greatly surprised me. It was sailing over the plain, about twenty feet from the surface, harried by several Lapwings, when suddenly, just as one Lapwing swept downwards past it in the usual way, apparently missing the head of the Hawk with its sharp wing-spurs by a hair's breadth, the Buzzard struck at and seized it in its claws and bore it to the ground. The screams of the captive and its fellows quickly brought to the spot a cloud of two or three hundred Lapwings, all hovering and screaming their loudest. I ran to the spot to aid in the rescue, when seeing me coming the Buzzard rose heavily from the ground, still carrying the Plover, and flew away beyond reach.
299. HETEROSPIZIAS MERIDIONALIS (Lath.).
(BROWN BUZZARD.)
+Urubitinga meridionalis+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 119; _iid. P. Z. S._ 1869, p. 634 (Buenos Ayres); _Salvin, Ibis_, 1880, p. 362 (Salta). +Heterospizias meridionalis+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ i. p. 160; _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 109 (Entrerios). +Asturina rutilans+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 436 (Tucuman).
_Description._--Above slaty grey, passing into ferruginous rufous on the head, and blackish on the lower tail-coverts; wing-feathers chestnut, with narrow transverse black bars and long black ends; tail black, with a broad median white band and white tip: beneath clear ferruginous red, with narrow transverse black bars; bill black, yellow at the base; feet yellowish brown: whole length 20·0 inches, wing 16·5, tail 8·3. _Female_ similar, but larger.
_Hab._ South America.
This Buzzard inhabits the northern portion of the Argentine Republic, and is also found in the woods and marshes along the Plata basin, ranging south to Buenos Ayres. The wings are larger and the flight slower than in the last species. The plumage is nearly of a uniform dark brown.
At Concepcion, in Entrerios, Mr. Barrows tells us it is not unfrequently seen in cold weather. In July 1880, during an almost unprecedented rise of the river, it was quite abundant. The stomach of a gorged female examined contained only young grasshoppers.
300. GERANOAËTUS MELANOLEUCUS (Vieill.).
(CHILIAN EAGLE.)
+Haliaëtus melanoleucus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 435 (Paraná, Tucuman, Pampas). +Geranoaëtus melanoleucus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 119; _Hudson, P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 536 (Rio Negro); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 38, et 1878, p. 397 (Patagonia); _Gibson, Ibis_, 1879, p. 409 (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 110 (Entrerios and Ventana). +Buteo melanoleucus+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ i. p. 168.
_Description._--Above black, wings grey, with narrow transverse black bars; tail black: beneath, throat grey; breast black, with slight round whitish spots; abdomen white, faintly barred across with grey; bill plumbeous; feet yellow, claws black: whole length 26·0 inches, wing 19·0, tail 10·5. _Female_ similar, but larger.
_Hab._ Whole southern half of South America, and western portion of northern half.
The Grey or Chilian Eagle, like most diurnal birds of prey, undergoes many changes of colour, the plumage at different periods having its brown, black, and grey stages: in the old birds it is a uniform clear grey, and the under surface white. Throughout the Argentine country this is the commonest Eagle, and I found it very abundant in Patagonia. D'Orbigny describes it with his usual prolixity--pardonably so in this case, however, the bird being one of the very few species with which he appears to have become familiar from personal observation. He says that it is a wary bird; pairs for life, the male and female never being found far apart; and that it soars in circles with a flight resembling that of a Vulture, and that the form of its broad blunt wings increases its resemblance to that bird. Cavies and small mammals are its usual prey; and in the autumn and winter, when the Pigeons congregate in large numbers, it follows their movements. During the Pigeon-season, he has counted as many as thirty Eagles in the course of a three leagues' ride; and he has frequently seen an Eagle swoop down into a cloud of Pigeons, and invariably reappear with one struggling in its talons. It is seldom found far from the shores of the sea or of some large river; and on the Atlantic coast, in Patagonia, it soars above the sands at ebb-tide, looking out for stranded fish, carcases of seals, and other animal food left by the retiring waters, and quarrels with Condors and Vultures over the refuse, even when it is quite putrid. It acts as a weather prognostic, and before a storm is seen to rise in circles to a vast height in the air, uttering piercing screams, which may be heard after it has quite disappeared from sight.
The nest of this species is usually built on the ledge of an inaccessible rock or precipice, but not unfrequently on a tree. Mr. Gibson describes one, which he found on the top of a thorn-tree, as a structure of large sticks three feet in diameter, the hollow cushioned with dry grass. It contained two eggs, dull white, marked with pale reddish blotches.
Mr. Gibson compares its cry to a "wild human laugh," and also writes:--"Its whereabouts may often be detected by an attendant flock of Caranchos (_Polyborus tharus_), particularly in the case of a young bird. As soon as it rises from the ground or from a tree, these begin to persecute it, ascending spirally also, and making dashes at it, while the Eagle only turns its head watchfully from side to side, the mere action being sufficient to avert the threatened collision."
Gay, in his 'Natural History of Chili,' describes the affectionate and amusing habits of an Eagle of this species which he had tamed. It took great delight in playing with his hand, and would seize and pretend to bite one of his fingers, but really with as much tenderness as a playful dog displays when pretending to bite its master. It used also to amuse itself by picking up a pebble in its beak, and with a jerk of its head toss it up in the air, then seize it in its claws when it fell, after which it would repeat the performance.
301. HARPYHALIAËTUS CORONATUS (Vieill.).
(CROWNED HARPY.)
+Harpyhaliaëtus coronatus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 119; _Hudson, P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 536 (Rio Negro); _Sharpe, Cat. B._ i. p. 221.
_Description._--Above ashy brown, with a long occipital crest of darker feathers; wings grey with blackish tips; tail black, with a broad white median band and white tip: beneath paler ashy brown, thighs blackish: whole length 33 inches, wing 22·0, tail 13·5. _Female_ similar, but larger.
_Hab._ South America.
I met with this fine Eagle on the Rio Negro, in Patagonia, where d'Orbigny also found it; the entire Argentine Territory comes, however, within its range. Having merely seen it perched on the tall willows fringing the Rio Negro, or soaring in wide circles far up in the sky, I cannot venture to speak of its habits, while the account of them which d'Orbigny built up is not worth quoting, for he does not say how he got his information. One of his statements would, if true, be very important indeed. He says that his attention was drawn to a very curious fact concerning the Crowned Harpy, which was, that this bird preys chiefly on the skunk--an animal, he very truly adds, with so pestilential an odour that even the most carnivorous of mammals are put to flight by it; that it is the only bird of prey that kills the skunk, and that it does so by precipitating itself from a vast height upon its quarry, which it then quickly despatches. It would not matter at all whether the Eagle dropped from a great or a moderate height, for in either case the skunk would receive its enemy with the usual pestilent discharge. D'Orbigny's account is, however, pure conjecture, and though he does not tell us what led him to form such a conclusion, I have no doubt that it was because the Eagle or Eagles he obtained had the skunk-smell on their plumage. Most of the Eagles I shot in Patagonia, including about a dozen Chilian Eagles, smelt of skunk, the smell being in most cases old and faint. Of two Crowned Harpies obtained, only one smelt of skunk. This only shows that in Patagonia Eagles attack the skunk, which is not strange, considering that it is of a suitable size and conspicuously marked; that it goes about fearlessly in the daytime and is the most abundant animal, the small cavy excepted, in that sterile country. But whether the Eagles _succeed_ in their attacks on it is a very different matter. The probability is that when an Eagle, incited by the pangs of hunger, commits so great a mistake as to attack a skunk, the pestilent fluid, which has the same terribly burning and nauseating effects on the lower animals as on man, very quickly makes it abandon the contest. It is certain that pumas make the same mistake as the Eagles do, for in some that are caught the fur smells strongly of skunk. It might be said that the fact that many Eagles smell of skunk serves to show that they do feed on them, for otherwise they would learn by experience to avoid so dangerous an animal, and the smell of a first encounter would soon wear off. I do not think that hungry birds of prey, in a barren country like Patagonia, would learn from one repulse, or even from several, the fruitlessness and danger of such attacks; while the smell is so marvellously persistent that one or two such attacks a year on the part of each Eagle would be enough to account for the smell on so many birds. If skunks could be easily conquered by Eagles, they would not be so numerous or so neglectful of their safety as we find them.
A fine example of this bird was brought alive from the Argentine Republic to England by Mr. E. W. Goodlake in 1863, and lived for several years in the Zoological Society's Gardens.
302. GERANOSPIZIAS CÆRULESCENS (Vieill.).
(GREY CRANE-HAWK.)
+Geranospiza cærulescens+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 121; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 623 (Salta). +Geranospizias cærulescens+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ i. p. 81.
_Description._--Above plumbeous, nape and upper tail-coverts slightly mottled with white; wing-feathers black, with a large white spot on the inner webs of the primaries; tail black, with two broad ochraceous white bars and white tip: beneath plumbeous, abdomen and under wing-coverts with irregular white cross bands; bill plumbeous; feet yellow: whole length 16·5 inches, wing 9·5, tail 8·0. _Female_ similar, but not so distinctly coloured, and larger.
_Hab._ South America.
White obtained an example of this species at Campo Colorado, near Oran, and another on the Upper Uruguay.
303. FALCO PEREGRINUS, Linn.
(PEREGRINE FALCON.)
+Falco peregrinus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 121; _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 470. +Falco communis+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ i. p. 376.
_Description._--Above plumbeous, lighter on the rump, more or less distinctly barred with blackish; head and cheeks blackish: beneath white, tinged with cinnamomeous, abdomen and thighs sparingly traversed by narrow black cross bands; under surface of wings white, regularly banded with ashy black; bill plumbeous; cere yellow; feet yellow, nails black: whole length 20 inches, wing 14·0, tail 6·7. _Female_ similar, but larger.
_Hab._ Old and New Worlds.
The Peregrine Falcon is found throughout the Argentine Republic, but is nowhere numerous, and is not migratory; nor is it "essentially a duck-hawk," as in India according to Dr. Anderson, for, it preys chiefly on land birds. It is solitary, and each bird possesses a favourite resting-place or _home_, where it spends several hours every day, and also roosts at night. Where there are trees it has its chosen site where it may always be found at noon; but on the open treeless pampas a mound of earth or the bleached skull of a horse or cow serves it for a perch, and here for months the bird may be found every day on its stand. It sits upright and motionless, springs suddenly into the air when taking flight, and flies in a straight line, and with a velocity which few birds can equal. Its appearance always causes great consternation amongst other birds, for even the Spur-winged Lapwing, the spirited persecutor of all other Hawks, flies screaming with terror from it. It prefers attacking moderately large birds, striking them on the wing, after which it stoops to pick them up. While out riding one day, I saw a Peregrine sweep down from a great height and strike a Burrowing-Owl to the earth, the Owl having risen up before me. It then picked it up and flew away with it in its talons.
The Peregrine possesses one very curious habit. When a plover, pigeon, or duck is killed, it eats the skin and flesh of the head and neck, picking the vertebræ clean of the flesh down to the breast-bone, and also eating the eyes, but leaving the body untouched. I have found scores of dead birds with head and neck picked clean in this way; and once I watched for some months a Peregrine which had established itself near my home, where it made havoc among the Pigeons; and I frequently marked the spot to which it carried its prey, and on going to the place always found that the Pigeon's head and neck only had been stripped of flesh. The Burrowing-Owl has an analogous habit, for it invariably rejects the hind quarters of the toads and frogs which it captures.
At the approach of the warm season the Peregrines are often seen in twos and threes violently pursuing each other at a great height in the air, and uttering shrill piercing screams, which can be heard distinctly after the birds have disappeared from sight.
304. FALCO FUSCO-CÆRULESCENS, Vieill.
(ORANGE-CHESTED HOBBY.)
+Falco femoralis+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 437 (Pampas). +Hypotriorchis femoralis+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 121; _iid. P. Z. S._ 1868, p. 143 (Buenos Ayres); _Hudson, P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 536 (Rio Negro); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 187, (Buenos Ayres), et 1878, p. 398 (Patagonia); _Salvin, Ibis_, 1880, p. 362 (Salta); _Gibson, Ibis_, 1879, p. 412 (Buenos Ayres); _White, P. Z. S._ 1883, p. 41 (Cordova); _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 470 (Lomas de Zamora). +Falco fusco-cærulescens+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ p. 400.
_Description._--Above dull slaty blackish, rump variegated with white; superciliaries lengthened and joined behind on the nape rufous: beneath, throat and breast pale cinnamomeous with black shaft-stripes on the breast; broad band across the belly black, with slight white transverse lines; lower belly and thighs clear cinnamomeous; wings and tail blackish with transverse white bars; bill yellow with black tip; feet orange, claws black: whole length 13·5 inches, wing 10·0, tail 7·0. _Female_ similar, but larger.
_Hab._ Central and South America.
The Orange-chested Hobby is found throughout South and Central America, but the form met with here differs, to some extent, in habits from its representatives of the hotter region. It is a Patagonian bird, the most common Falcon in that country, and is migratory, wintering in the southern and central Argentine provinces. In its winter home it is solitary, and fond of hovering about farm-houses, where it sits on a tree or post and looks out for its prey. Compared with the Peregrine it has a very poor spirit, and I have often watched it give chase to a bird, and just when it seemed about to grasp its prey, give up the pursuit and slink ingloriously away. It never boldly and openly attacks any bird, except of the smallest species, and prefers to perch on an elevation from which it can dart down suddenly and take its prey by surprise.
The nest is a slovenly structure of sticks on a thorny bush or tree. The eggs, which I have not seen, Darwin describes as follows:--"Surface rough with white projecting points; colour nearly uniform dirty wood-brown; general appearance as if it had been rubbed in brown mud."
305. TINNUNCULUS CINNAMOMINUS (Sw.).
(CINNAMOMEOUS KESTREL.)
+Falco sparverius+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 437 (Mendoza, Tucuman); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 110 (Entrerios). +Tinnunculus sparverius+, _Darwin, Zool. 'Beagle,'_ iii. p. 29 (Rio Negro); _Scl et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 121; _iid. P. Z. S._ 1868, p. 143 (Buenos Ayres); _Hudson, P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 536 (Rio Negro); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 39 (Chupat), p. 188 (Buenos Ayres), et 1878, p. 398 (Centr. Patagonia); _Gibson, Ibis_, 1879, p. 412 (Buenos Ayres). +Cerchneis cinnamomina+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ i. p. 439. +Tinnunculus cinnamominus+, _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 470 (Lomas de Zamora).
_Description._--Above cinnamon-red, with irregular black cross bands on the back; head bluish grey; front and sides of head white; nape and stripes on the sides of the neck black; wings bluish grey with black central spots; remiges black, with numerous white cross bars on the inner webs; tail cinnamon-red, with a broad subterminal black band and white tip: beneath white, with buffy tinge and irregular oval black spots: whole length 10·5 inches, wing 7·7, tail 5·0. _Female_ similar, but rather larger; upper surface regularly barred across; beneath buffy white with brown shaft-stripes; tail with numerous cross bars.
_Hab._ South America.
The habits of this little Falcon closely resemble those of _Falco fusco-cærulescens_, and like that bird it is common in Patagonia and migrates north in winter. Many individuals, however, do not migrate, as I found when residing at the Rio Negro, where some pairs remained at the breeding-place all the year. Many pairs are also found resident and breeding in other parts of the Argentine country, but it is common only in Patagonia.
It nests in holes in cliffs and also on trees, and sometimes builds its own nest on the large nest of a Dendrocolaptine bird or of a Parroquet. It lays four eggs, large for the size of the bird, oval in shape, and white in colour, thickly blotched with dull red.
The preying habits of the Little Kestrel are similar to those of the Orange-chested Hobby; it haunts farm-houses and plantations, and spends a great deal of time perched on some elevation watching for its prey, and making sudden dashes to capture it by surprise. But though not bold when seeking its food, it frequently makes violent unprovoked attacks on species very much larger than itself, either from ill-temper or in a frolicsome spirit, which is more probable.
Thus I have seen one drive up a flock of Glossy Ibises and pursue them some distance, striking and buffeting them with the greatest energy. I saw another pounce down from its perch, where it had been sitting for some time, on a female skunk quietly seated at the entrance of her burrow, with her three half-grown young frolicking around her. I was watching them with intense interest, for they were leaping over their parent's tail, and playing like kittens with it, when the Hawk dashed down, and after striking at them quickly three or four times, as they tumbled pell-mell into their kennel, flew quietly away, apparently well satisfied with its achievement.
306. ELANUS LEUCURUS (Vieill.).
(WHITE-TAILED KITE.)
+Elanus leucurus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 121; _iid. P. Z. S._ 1869, p. 160 (Buenos Ayres); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 188 (Buenos Ayres); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 623 (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 111 (Entrerios); _Döring, Exp. al Rio Negro_, p. 50 (Pampas); _Sharpe, Cat. B._ i. p. 339; _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 470 (Lomas de Zamora).
_Description._--Above grey; lesser wing-coverts and scapulars black; tail white, two central rectrices grey: beneath white; bill black; feet yellow; claws yellow: whole length 14·5 inches, wing 11·0, tail 7·0. _Female_ similar, but rather larger.
_Hab._ Central and South America.
This interesting Hawk is found throughout the Argentine Republic, but is nowhere numerous. It also inhabits Chili, where, Gay says, it is called _Bailarin_ (dancer) on account of its aerial performances. It is a handsome bird, with large ruby-red irides, and when seen at a distance its snow-white plumage and buoyant flight give it a striking resemblance to a gull. Its wing-power is indeed marvellous. It delights to soar, like the Martens, during a high wind, and will spend hours in this sport, rising and falling alternately, and at times, seeming to abandon itself to the fury of the gale, is blown away like thistle-down, until, suddenly recovering itself, it shoots back to its original position. Where there are tall poplar trees these birds amuse themselves by perching on the topmost slender twigs, balancing themselves with outspread wings, each bird on a separate tree, until the tree-tops are swept by the wind from under them, when they often remain poised almost motionless in the air, until the twigs return to their feet.
When looking out for prey, this Kite usually maintains a height of sixty or seventy feet above the ground, and in its actions strikingly resembles a fishing gull, frequently remaining poised in the air with body motionless and wings rapidly vibrating for fully half a minute at a stretch, after which it flies on or dashes down upon its prey.
The nest is placed on the topmost twigs of a tall tree, and is round and neatly built of sticks, rather deep, and lined with dry grass. The eggs are eight in number, nearly spherical, the ground-colour creamy white, densely marked with longitudinal blotches or strips of a fine rich red, almost like coagulated blood in hue. There is, however, great variety in the shades of the red, also in the disposition of the markings, these in some eggs being confluent, so that the whole shell is red. The shell is polished and exceedingly fragile, a rare thing in the eggs of a raptor.
An approach to the nest is always greeted by the birds with long distressful cries, and this cry is also muttered in the love-season, when the males often fight and pursue each other in the air. The old and young birds sometimes live together until the following spring.
307. ROSTRHAMUS SOCIABILIS (Vieill.).
(SOCIABLE MARSH-HAWK.)
+Rostrhamus sociabilis+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 121; _iid. P. Z. S._ 1869, p. 160 (Buenos Ayres); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 188 (Buenos Ayres); _Gibson, Ibis_, 1879, p. 413 (Buenos Ayres); _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 470 (Lomas de Zamora). +Rostrhamus leucopygus+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ i. p. 328. +Rostrhamus hamatus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 435 (Rio Paraná).
_Description._--Blackish slate-colour; head and wing-feathers black; rump white; tail white, with a broad band occupying the apical half, but leaving the tail end greyish; bill orange, apical half black; feet orange-brown, claws black: whole length 17·0 inches, wings 13·0, tail 7·5. _Female_ similar, but rather larger.
_Hab._ South America.
This Hawk in size and manner of flight resembles a Buzzard, but in its habits and the form of its slender and very sharply hooked beak it differs widely from that bird. The name of Sociable Marsh-Hawk, which Azara gave to this species, is very appropriate, for they invariably live in flocks of from twenty to a hundred individuals, and migrate and even breed in company. In Buenos Ayres they appear in September and resort to marshes and streams abounding in large water-snails (_Ampullaria_), on which they feed exclusively. Each bird has a favourite perch or spot of ground to which it carries every snail it captures, and after skilfully extracting the animal with its curiously modified beak, it drops the shell on the mound. When disturbed or persecuted by other birds they utter a peculiar cry, resembling the shrill neighing of a horse. In disposition they are most peaceable, and where they are abundant all other birds soon discover that they are not as other Hawks are and pay no attention to them. When soaring, which is their favourite pastime, the flight is singularly slow, the bird frequently remaining motionless for long intervals in one place; but the expanded tail is all the time twisted about in the most singular manner, moved from side to side, and turned up until its edge is nearly at a right angle with the plane of the body. These tail-movements appear to enable it to remain stationary in the air without the rapid vibratory wing-motions practised by _Elanus leucurus_ and other hovering birds; and I should think that the vertebræ of the tail must have been somewhat modified by such a habit.
Concerning its breeding-habits Mr. Gibson writes:--"In the year 1873 I was so fortunate as to find a breeding colony in one of our largest and deepest swamps. There were probably twenty or thirty nests, placed a few yards apart, in the deepest and most lonely part of the whole 'cañadon.' They were slightly built platforms, supported on the rushes and two or three feet above the water, with the cup-shaped hollow lined with pieces of grass and water-rush. The eggs never exceeded three in a nest; the ground-colour generally bluish white, blotched and clouded very irregularly with dull red-brown, the rufous tint sometimes being replaced with ash-grey."
308. SPIZIAPTERYX CIRCUMCINCTUS (Kaup).
(SPOT-WINGED FALCON.)
+Falco circumcinctus+, _Scl. Ibis_, 1862, p. 23, pl. ii. +Spiziapteryx circumcinctus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 122; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 623 (Catamarca); _Sharpe, Cat. B._ i. p. 371. +Falco punctipennis+, _Burm. J. f. O._ 1860, p. 242. +Hemiiërax circumcinctus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 438.
_Description._--Above brown, with black shaft-stripes; head black, with brown stripes and white superciliaries, which join round the nape, forming an ill-defined nuchal band; rump pure white; wings black, with white oval spots on the outer and white bars on the inner webs; tail black, all the lateral rectrices crossed by five or six broad white bars: beneath white, breast regularly striped with narrow black shaft stripes; bill plumbeous, lower mandible yellow, except at the tip; feet greenish, nails black: whole length 11 inches, wing 6·5, tail 5·0. _Female_ similar, but rather larger.
_Hab._ Argentina.
This small Hawk is sometimes met with in the woods of La Plata, near the river; it is rare, but owing to its curious violent flight, with the short blunt wings rapidly beating all the time, it is very conspicuous in the air and well known to the natives, who call it _Rey de los Pajaros_ (King of the Birds), and entertain a very high opinion of its courage and strength. I have never seen it taking its prey, and do not believe that it ever attempts to capture anything in the air, its short blunt wings and peculiar manner of flight being unsuited for such a purpose. Probably it captures birds by a sudden dash when they mob it on its perch; and I do not know any raptor more persistently run after and mobbed by small birds. I once watched one for upwards of an hour as it sat on a tree attended by a large flock of Guira Cuckoos, all excitedly screaming and bent on dislodging it from its position. So long as they kept away five or six feet from it the Hawk remained motionless, only hissing and snapping occasionally as a warning; but whenever a Cuckoo ventured a little nearer and into the charmed circle, it would make a sudden rapid dash and buffet the intruder violently back to a proper distance, returning afterwards to its own stand.
309. MILVAGO CHIMANGO (Vieill.).
(CHIMANGO CARRION-HAWK.)
+Milvago chimango+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 122; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 40 (Chupat), et p. 188 (Buenos Ayres), et 1878, p. 398 (Centr. Patagonia); _Gibson, Ibis_, 1879, p. 420 (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 111 (Entrerios); _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 470 (Lomas de Zamora). +Ibycter chimango+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ i. p. 41. +Milvago pezoporus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 434 (La Plata).
_Description._--Above reddish brown, with ashy edgings to the feathers; rump greyish white; greater wing-coverts white, with slight brown cross bars; primaries dark brown, externally at their bases freckled with grey; inner webs at their bases white; tail greyish white, with numerous freckles and narrow bands of brownish grey: beneath grey, deeply tinged with rufous on the throat and breast; crissum nearly white; under wing-coverts deep rufous; bill pale yellowish; feet olive: whole length 15·0 inches, wing 11·0, tail 6·5. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ Southern half of South America.
Azara says of the Carancho (_Polyborus tharus_):--"All methods of subsistence are known to this bird: it pries into, understands, and takes advantage of everything." These words apply better to the Chimango, which has probably the largest bill of fare of any bird, and has grafted on to its own peculiar manner of life the habits of twenty diverse species. By turns it is a falcon, a vulture, an insect-eater, and a vegetable-eater. On the same day you will see one bird in violent hawk-like pursuit of its living prey, with all the instincts of rapine hot within it, and another less ambitious individual engaged in laboriously tearing at an old cast-off shoe, uttering mournful notes the while, but probably more concerned at the tenacity of the material than at its indigestibility.
A species so cosmopolitan in its tastes might have had a whole volume to itself in England; being only a poor foreigner, it has had no more than a few unfriendly paragraphs bestowed upon it. For it happens to be a member of that South-American subfamily of which even grave naturalists have spoken slightingly, calling them vile, cowardly, contemptible birds; and the Chimango is nearly least of them all--a sort of poor relation and hanger on of a family already looked upon as bankrupt and disreputable. Despite this evil reputation, few species are more deserving of careful study; for throughout an extensive portion of South America it is the commonest bird we know; and when we consider how closely connected are the lives of all living creatures by means of their interlacing relations, so that the predominance of any one kind, however innocuous, necessarily causes the modification, or extinction even, of surrounding species, we are better able to appreciate the importance of this despised fowl in the natural polity. Add to this its protean habits, and then, however poor a creature our bird may seem, and deserving of strange-sounding epithets from an ethical point of view, I do not know where the naturalist will find a more interesting one.
The Chimango has not an engaging appearance. In size and figure it much resembles the Hen-harrier, and the plumage is uniformly of a light sandy brown colour; the shanks are slender, claws weak, and beak so slightly hooked that it seems like the merest apology of the Falcon's tearing weapon. It has an easy loitering flight, and when on the wing does not appear to have an object in view, like the Hawk, but wanders and prowls about here and there, and when it spies another bird it flies after him to see if he has food in his eye. When one finds something to eat the others try to deprive him of it, pursuing him with great determination all over the place; if the foremost pursuer flags, a fresh bird takes its place, until the object of so much contention--perhaps after all only a bit of skin or bone--is dropped to the ground, to be instantly snatched up by some bird in the tail of the chase; and he in turn becomes the pursued of all the others. This continues till one grows tired and leaves off watching them without seeing the result. They are loquacious and sociable, frequently congregating in loose companies of thirty or forty individuals, when they spend several hours every day in spirited exercises, soaring about like Martins, performing endless evolutions, and joining in aerial mock battles. When tired of these pastimes they all settle down again, to remain for an hour or so perched on the topmost boughs of trees or other elevations; and at intervals one bird utters a very long leisurely chant, with a falling inflection, followed by a series of short notes, all the other birds joining in chorus and uttering short notes in time with those of their soloist or precentor. The nest is built on trees or rushes in swamps, or on the ground amongst grass and thistles. The eggs are three or four in number, nearly spherical, blotched with deep red on a white or creamy ground; sometimes the whole egg is marbled with red; but there are endless varieties. It is easy to find the nest, and becomes easier when there are young birds, for the parent when out foraging invariably returns to her young uttering long mournful notes, so that one has only to listen and mark the spot where it alights. After visiting a nest I have always found the young birds soon disappear, and as the old birds vanish also I believe that the Chimango removes its young when the nest has been discovered--a rare habit with birds.
Chimangos abound most in settled districts, but a prospect of food will quickly bring numbers together even in the most solitary places. On the desert pampas, where hunters, Indian and European, have a great fancy for burning the dead grass, the moment the smoke of a distant fire is seen there the Chimangos fly to follow the conflagration. They are, at such times, strangely animated, dashing through clouds of smoke, feasting amongst the hot ashes on roasted cavies and other small mammals, and boldly pursuing the scorched fugitives from the flames.
At all times and in all places the Chimango is ever ready to pounce on the weak, the sickly, and the wounded. In other regions of the globe these doomed ones fall into the clutches of the true bird of prey; but the salutary office of executioner is so effectually performed by the Chimango and his congeners where these false Hawks abound, that the true Hawks have a much keener struggle to exist here. This circumstance has possibly served to make them swifter of wing, keener of sight, and bolder in attack than elsewhere. I have seen a Buzzard, which is not considered the bravest of the Hawks, turn quick as lightning on a Cayenne Lapwing, which was pursuing it, and grappling it bear it down to the ground and despatch it in a moment, though a hundred other Lapwings were uttering piercing screams above it. Yet this Plover is a large, powerful, fierce-tempered bird, and armed with sharp spurs on its wings. This is but one of numberless instances I have witnessed of the extreme strength and daring of our Hawks.
When shooting birds to preserve I used to keep an anxious eye on the movements of the Chimangos flying about, for I have had some fine specimens carried off or mutilated by these omnipresent robbers. One winter day I came across a fine _Myiotheretes rufiventris_, a pretty and graceful Tyrant-bird, rather larger than the Common Thrush, with a chocolate and silver-grey plumage. It was rare in that place, and, anxious to secure it, I fired a very long shot, for it was extremely shy. It rose up high in the air and flew off apparently unconcerned. What, then, was my surprise to see a Chimango start off in pursuit of it! Springing on to my horse, I followed, and before going half a mile noticed the Tyrant-bird beginning to show signs of distress. After avoiding several blows aimed by the Chimango, it flew down and plunged into a cardoon bush. There I captured it, and when skinning it to preserve found that one small shot had lodged in the fleshy portion of the breast. It was a very slight wound, yet the Chimango with its trained sight had noticed something wrong with the bird from the moment it flew off, apparently in its usual free buoyant manner.
On another occasion I was defrauded of a more valuable specimen than the Tyrant-bird. It was on the east coast of Patagonia, when one morning, while seated on an elevation, watching the waves dashing themselves on the shore, I perceived a shining white object tossing about at some distance from land. Successive waves brought it nearer, till at last it was caught up and flung far out on to the shingle, fifty yards from where I sat; and instantly, before the cloud of spray had vanished, a Chimango dashed down upon it. I jumped up and ran down as fast as I could, and found my white object to be a Penguin, apparently just killed by some accident out at sea, and in splendid plumage; but, alas! in that moment the vile Chimango had stripped off and devoured the skin from its head, so that as a specimen it was hopelessly ruined.
As a rule, strong healthy birds despise the Chimango; they feed in his company; his sudden appearance causes no alarm, and they do not take the trouble to persecute him; but when they have eggs or young he is not to be trusted. He is not easily turned from a nest he has once discovered. I have seen him carry off a young Tyrant-bird (_Milvulus tyrannus_), in the face of such an attack from the parent birds that one would have imagined not even an Eagle could have weathered such a tempest. Curiously enough, like one of the boldest of our small Hawks (_Tinnunculus cinnamominus_), they sometimes attack birds so much too strong and big for them that they must know the assault will produce more annoyance than harm. I was once watching a flock of Coots feeding on a grassy bank, when a passing Chimango paused in its flight, and, after hovering over them a few moments, dashed down upon them with such impetuosity that several birds were thrown to the ground by the quick successive blows of its wings. There they lay on their backs, kicking, apparently too much terrified to get up, while the Chimango deliberately eyed them for some moments, then quietly flew away, leaving them to dash into the water and cool their fright. Attacks like these are possibly made in a sportive spirit, for the Milvago is a playful bird, and, as with many other species, bird and mammal, its play always takes the form of attack.
Its inefficient weapons compel it to be more timid than the Hawk, but there are many exceptions, and in every locality individual birds are found distinguished by their temerity. Almost any shepherd can say that his flock is subject to the persecutions of at least one pair of lamb-killing birds of this species. They prowl about the flock, and watch till a small lamb is found sleeping at some distance from its dam, rush upon it, and, clinging to its head, eat away its nose and tongue. The shepherd is then obliged to kill the lamb; but I have seen many lambs that have been permitted to survive the mutilation, and which have grown to strong, healthy sheep, though with greatly disfigured faces. One more instance I will give of the boldness of a bird of which Azara, greatly mistaken, says that it might possibly have courage enough to attack a mouse, though he doubts it. Close to my house, when I was a boy, a pair of these birds had their nest near a narrow path leading through a thicket of giant thistles, and every time I traversed this path the male bird, which, contrary to the rule with birds of prey, is larger and bolder than the female, would rise high above me, then dashing down, strike my horse a violent blow on the forehead with its wings. This action it would repeat till I was out of the path. I thought it very strange the bird never struck _my_ head; but I presently discovered that it had an excellent reason for what it