: Argentine Ornithology, Volume I (of 2) by P. L Sclater, W. H Hudson (books to read in your 20s female .txt) 📖

74. DIUCA MINOR, Bp. (LESSER DIUCA FINCH.)

 

+Diuca minor+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 483 (San Louis,

      Cordova); _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 31; _Hudson, P. Z. S._

      1872, p. 537 (Rio Negro); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1878, p. 393 (Tombo

      Point, Pat.); _Döring, Exp. al Rio Negro, Zool._ p. 39 (R.

      Colorado, R. Negro); _Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ viii.

131 (Concepcion, Entrerios).

 

    _Description._--Grey; head, neck, and back faintly washed with

    brown; wings blackish, the feathers edged with brownish grey;

    tail-feathers black, tipped with white on the inner webs; beneath,

    from the bill to the chest, white; upper part of breast and sides

    grey; rest of the under surface white; a bright chestnut spot on

    the flanks: whole length 6·5 inches, wing 3·2, tail 2·6. _Female_

    similar, but less bright than male.

 

_Hab._ Argentina and Patagonia.

 

This pretty little grey-and-white Finch is common on the Chilian side

of the Andes and throughout Patagonia, and also occurs in the Mendoza

district. It is a tuneful bird, lively, social, and frolicsome in

disposition; in autumn and winter uniting in flocks of from fifty to

three or four hundred individuals; swift of flight, and when on the wing

fond of pursuing its fellows and engaging in mock battles. The song of

the male is very pleasing, the voice having more depth and mellowness

than is usual with the smaller fringilline singers, which, as a rule,

have thin, reedy, and tremulous notes. In summer it begins singing

very early, even before the faintest indication of coming daylight is

visible, and at that dark silent hour the notes may be heard at a great

distance and sound wonderfully sweet and impressive. During the cold

season, when they live in companies, the singing-time is in the evening,

when the birds are gathered in some thick-foliaged tree or bush which

they have chosen for a winter roosting-place. This winter-evening song

is a hurried twittering, and utterly unlike the serene note of the male

bird heard on summer mornings. A little while after sunset the flock

bursts into a concert, which lasts several minutes, sinking and growing

louder by turns, and during which it is scarcely possible to distinguish

the notes of individuals. Then follows an interval of silence, after

which the singing is again renewed very suddenly and as suddenly ended.

For an hour after sunset, and when all other late singers, like the

_Mimus_, have long been silent, this fitful impetuous singing is

continued. Close by a house on the Rio Negro, in which I spent several

months, there were three very large chañar bushes, where a multitude

of Diuca Finches used to roost, and they never missed singing in the

evening, however cold or rainy the weather happened to be. So fond were

they of this charming habit, that when I approached the bushes or stood

directly under them, the alarm caused by my presence would interrupt the

performance only for a few moments, and presently they would burst into

song again, the birds all the time swiftly pursuing each other amongst

the foliage, often within a foot of my head.

 

The eggs, Darwin says (Zool. Voy. 'Beagle,' iii. p. 93), are pointed,

oval, pale dirty green, thickly blotched with pale dull brown, becoming

confluent and entirely coloured at the broad end.

75. CATAMENIA ANALIS (d'Orb. et Lafr.). (RED-STAINED FINCH.)

 

+Catamenia analis+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 488 (Mendoza);

      _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 31; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 599

      (Catamarca). +Spermophila analis+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ xii. p. 106.

 

    _Description._--Above clear grey; wing-feathers black, edged with

    grey; tail black, a large white blotch on the central part of each

    feather, the two middle feathers excepted; beneath grey, palest on

    the belly; under tail-coverts rufous: whole length 5·0 inches, wing

    2·8, tail 2·2. _Female_, above obscure brownish buff, striped with

    blackish; beneath dirty white.

 

_Hab._ Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina.

 

Burmeister met with this Finch on the sierras near Mendoza, and White

obtained a single specimen in Catamarca.

76. CATAMENIA INORNATA (Lafr.). (PLAIN-COLOURED FINCH.)

 

+Sporophila rufirostris+, _Landb. J. f. O._ 1865, p. 404 (Mendoza).

      +Catamenia inornata+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 31.

      +Spermophila inornata+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ xii. p. 104.

 

    _Description._--Above dull grey, clearer on the rump; wings and

    tail blackish, wing-feathers edged with grey; beneath grey, under

    tail-coverts bright chestnut; bill red; feet brown: whole length 5·0

    inches, wing 2·5, tail 2·2.

 

_Hab._ Bolivia and N. Argentina.

 

Examples of this species were obtained by Weisshaupt near Mendoza in

1871.

77. ZONOTRICHIA PILEATA (Bodd.). (CHINGOLO SONG-SPARROW.)

 

+Zonotrichia pileata+, _Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S._ 1868, p. 139, _iid.

      Nomencl._ p. 31; _Salvin, Ibis_, 1880, p. 355 (Salta); _Gibson,

      Ibis_, 1880, p. 28 (Buenos Ayres); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 600

      (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ viii. p. 131

      (Concepcion). +Zonotrichia matutina+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii.

486.

 

    _Description._--Above dusky grey, striped with blackish brown; the

    top of the head from the bill to the nape grey; a whitish stripe

    from the eye to the nape; between the stripe and the grey on the

    crown black; a narrow chestnut ring round the neck, widening to a

    large patch on the sides of the chest, the patch bordered with black

    on its lower part; beneath, throat white; breast and belly ashy

    white; bill and feet light horn-colour: whole length 5·7 inches,

    wing 2·8, tail 2·2. _Female_ similar, but duller in colour and a

    trifle smaller.

 

_Hab._ Central and South America.

 

The common, familiar, favourite Sparrow over a large portion of the

South-American continent is the "_Chingolo_." Darwin says that "it

prefers inhabited places, but has not attained the air of domestication

of the English Sparrow, which bird in habits and general appearance it

resembles." As it breeds in the fields on the ground, it can never be

equally familiar with man, but in appearance it is like a refined copy

of the burly English Sparrow--more delicately tinted, the throat being

chestnut instead of black; the head smaller and better proportioned, and

with the added distinction of a crest, which it lowers and elevates at

all angles to express the various feelings affecting its busy little

mind.

 

On the treeless desert pampas the Chingolo is rarely seen, but wherever

man builds a house and plants a tree there it comes to keep him company,

while in cultivated and thickly settled districts it is excessively

abundant, and about Buenos Ayres it literally swarms in the fields and

plantations. They are not, strictly speaking, gregarious, but where food

attracts them, or the shelter of a hedge on a cold windy day, thousands

are frequently seen congregated in one place; when disturbed, however,

these accidental flocks immediately break up, the birds scattering

abroad in different directions.

 

The Chingolo is a very constant singer, his song beginning with the dawn

of day in spring, and continuing until evening; it is very short, being

composed of a chipping prelude and four long notes, three uttered in a

clear thin voice, the last a trill. This song is repeated at brief

intervals, as the bird sits motionless, perched on the disc of a

thistle-flower, the summit of a stalk, or other elevation; and where the

Chingolos are very abundant, the whole air, on a bright spring morning,

is alive with their delicate melody; only one must pause and listen

before he is aware of it, otherwise it will escape him, owing to its

thin ethereal character, the multitudinous notes not mingling but

floating away, as it were, detached and scattered, mere gossamer webs of

sound that very faintly impress the sense. They also sing frequently at

night, and in that dark silent time their little melody sounds strangely

sweet and expressive. The song varies greatly in different districts;

thus, in Bahia Blanca it is without the long trill at the end, and in

other localities I have found it vary in other ways.

 

The Chingolos pair about the end of September, and at that time their

battles are frequent, as they are very pugnacious. The nest is made

under a thistle or tuft of grass, in a depression in the soil, so that

the top of the nest is on a level with the surface of the ground. The

nest is mostly made and lined with horse-hair, the eggs four or five,

pale blue, and thickly spotted with dull brown. Sometimes, though very

rarely, a nest is found in a bush or on a stump several feet above the

ground. Two broods are reared in the season, the first in October, the

second in February or March. I have known these birds to breed in April

and May, and these very late nests escape the infliction of parasitical

eggs. When the nest is approached or taken, the Chingolos utter no

sound, but sit in dumb anxiety, with tail expanded and drooping wings.

78. ZONOTRICHIA CANICAPILLA, Gould. (PATAGONIAN SONG-SPARROW.)

 

+Zonotrichia canicapilla+, _Durnford,