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

a Snipe flushed from its marsh, and, darting this way and

that, presently drops into the grass once more. The moment she appears

above the grass the male gives chase, and they vanish from sight

together. Thus, while in colour, habits, language, and even in its

manner of soaring up like a rocket to let off its curious melody, the

male is the most conspicuous of small birds, the female, acted on in an

opposite direction by natural selection, has been, so to speak, effaced.

While flying, they do not look like birds of the same species: the male

moves with wings rapidly fluttered, like a Starling, but with a slower,

more laborious flight, and without deviating; the female, in her

eccentric movements in the air, reminds one of a large moth driven from

its hiding-place, and flying about confused with the glare of noon.

 

The nest is made of dry grass on the ground, so cunningly concealed that

it is most difficult to find. The eggs are four, white, spotted with

reddish brown. When they have young, I have never been able to detect

the female flying about in search of food.

 

All through the summer these birds are solitary, but when migrating in

the autumn, though many are seen travelling singly, and appear very

conspicuous as they fly laboriously in a straight line, at an altitude

of about twenty yards from the surface, others are seen making

their journey in small flocks or parties composed of six to a dozen

individuals. These are the males. The females travel separately, in twos

or threes or singly, flying nearer to the earth, with frequent pauses,

when the wings cease beating, and intervals of gliding, also darting

occasionally to one side, as if the bird had suddenly taken fright.

101. AMBLYRHAMPHUS HOLOSERICEUS (Scop.). (SCARLET-HEADED MARSH-BIRD.)

 

+Amblyrhamphus holosericeus+, _Hudson, P. Z. S._ 1870, p. 114 (Buenos

      Ayres); _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 37; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877,

174 (Buenos Ayres); _Gibson, Ibis_, 1880, p. 18 (Buenos

      Ayres); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 602 (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows,

      Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ viii. p. 135 (Entrerios); _Scl. Cat. B._

p. 351. +Amblyrhamphus ruber+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p.

      491 (Entrerios, Santa Fé, Paraná).

 

    _Description._--Black; whole head and neck all round, and upper

    breast and thighs scarlet; bill and feet black: total length 9·5

    inches, wing 4·5, tail 4·0. _Female_ similar. _Young_ uniform black.

 

_Hab._ Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina.

 

Azara named this species _Tordo negro cabeza roxa_; it is also called

_Boyero_ (ox-herd) by country people, from its note resembling the long

whistle of a drover; and sometimes _Chisel-bill_, from the peculiar

conformation of the beak, which is long, straight, and has a broad fine

point like a chisel. In both sexes the plumage of the head and neck

is scarlet, of an exceedingly brilliant tint, all other parts intense

black. These birds are lively, active, and sociable, going in flocks of

from half-a-dozen to thirty individuals; they remain all the year, and

inhabit the marshes, from which they seldom wander very far, but seek

their insect food in the soft decaying rushes. They are common on the

swampy shores of the Plata, and when seen at a distance, perched

in their usual manner on the summits of the tall rushes, their

flame-coloured heads shine with a strange glory above the sere sombre

vegetation of the marshes. The long whistling note above mentioned is

their only song, but it varies considerably, and often sounds as mellow

and sweet as the whistle of the European Blackbird.

 

The nest is an ingenious structure of dry grasses, fastened to the

upright stems of an aquatic plant, three or four feet above the water.

The eggs are four, in size and form like those of the English

Song-Thrush, spotted somewhat sparsely with black on a light blue

ground.

 

The young birds are entirely black at first, and afterwards assume on

the head and neck a pale terra-cotta red, which gradually deepens to

vivid scarlet.

102. PSEUDOLEISTES VIRESCENS (Vieill.). (YELLOW-BREASTED MARSH-BIRD.)

 

+Pseudoleistes virescens+, _Hudson, P. Z. S._ 1870, p. 549, et 1874,

156 (Buenos Ayres); _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 37; _Durnford,

      Ibis_, 1877, p. 175, et 1878, p. 59 (Buenos Ayres); _Gibson,

      Ibis_, 1880, p. 31 (Buenos Ayres); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 602

      (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ viii. p. 135

      (Entrerios); _Scl. Cat. B._ xi. p. 352. +Leistes anticus+, _Burm.

      La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 491 (Paraná).

 

    _Description._--Above and below dark olive-brown; lesser upper

    wing-coverts, under wing-coverts, and middle of the abdomen yellow;

    bill black; feet dark brown: total length 9·5 inches, wing 4·6, tail

    3·8. _Female_ similar.

 

_Hab._ S. Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina.

 

In both sexes in this species the plumage is deep olivaceous brown,

the breast pure yellow. It is active, strong on the wing, sociable and

noisy; and being moreover a pretty and elegant bird, very common in

settled districts, and with a preference for man's neighbourhood, it

is familiar to every one, and has won amongst many competitors the

vernacular name of _Pecho-amarillo_ (Yellow-breast), for with us

yellow-breasted species are somewhat numerous. It remains all the year,

invariably going about in flocks of from twenty to thirty birds, and

feeds on the ground in the fields or on the open plain. While they are

feeding, one bird takes up a position on a stalk or thistle-top to keep

guard; when he flies down another bird takes his place; if a person

approaches, the sentinel gives the alarm, and all the birds fly off in a

very close flock, making the air resound with their loud ringing notes.

After feeding, they repair to the trees, where they join their robust

voices in a spirited concert, without any set form of melody such as

other song-birds possess, but all together, flinging out their notes at

random, as if mad with joy. In this delightful hubbub there are some

soft silvery sounds. Where they are never persecuted they have little

fear of man, but they invariably greet his approach with a loud vigorous

remonstrance.

 

In October the birds break up their companies to pair. Sometimes they

breed on the open plain in a large cardoon thistle, but a thick bush or

low tree is preferred. The nest is like that of a Thrush, being deep,

compactly made of dry grass and slender sticks, plastered inside with

mud, and lined with hair or soft dry grass. It is, however, deeper and

more symmetrical than the Thrush's nest, and it is sometimes plastered

with cow-dung instead of with mud. The eggs are four, very long, white,

and abundantly spotted with deep red, the spots becoming confluent at

the large end.

 

The Yellow-breast is never seen to quarrel with its fellows or with

other birds, and it is possibly due to its peaceful disposition that it

is more victimized by the parasitical _Molothrus_ than any other bird. I

have frequently found their nests full of parasitical eggs, as many as

fourteen and in one case sixteen, eggs in one nest. In some seasons all

the nests I found and watched were eventually abandoned by the birds on

account of the number of parasitical eggs dropped in them. I have also

so frequently found parasitical eggs on the ground under the nest that I

believe the Yellow-breast throws out some of these foreign eggs, and in

one instance I was quite sure that this had happened. The nest was in

a cardoon bush, and contained five eggs--two of the Yellow-breast

and three parasitical. These three were of the variety most thickly

mottled with red, and consequently closely resembling the eggs of the

Yellow-breast. I was surprised to find five more eggs of the Cow-bird

on the ground, close together, and about three feet from the bush; and

these five eggs were all pure white and unspotted. Naturally I asked,

How came these eggs in such a position? They had not fallen from the

nest, which was very deep, contained few eggs, and was scarcely thirty

inches above the ground. Then they were all white, while those in the

nest were mottled. That the eggs had been laid in the nest I felt

certain; and the only way I can account for their being in the place

where I found them is that the Yellow-breast itself removed them, taking

them up in its bill and flying with them to the ground. If I am right,

we must believe that this individual Yellow-breast had developed an

instinct unusual in the species, which enables it to distinguish, and

cast out of its nest, eggs very different from its own--an instinct, in

fact, the object of which would be to counteract the parasitical habit

of _Molothrus_. What would be the effect of such an instinct should the

species acquire it? Doubtless it would be highly prejudicial to the

parasitical birds laying white eggs, but favourable to those laying

mottled eggs. This would be natural selection operating in a very

unusual manner; for the Yellow-breast, or other species, would improve

another to its own detriment, since the more the parasitical eggs

assimilated to its own, the greater would be the likelihood of

their being preserved. The perfect similarity of the eggs of _M.

rufoaxillaris_ to those of _M. badius_ perhaps was brought about in this

way. But, it may be added, if besides the Yellow-breast some one other

species laying very different eggs (a _Zonotrichia_ or _Tyrannus_, for

instance) should also acquire this distinguishing habit, and eject all

eggs unlike its own from its nest, the habit in the two or more species

would ultimately cause the extinction of the parasite.

 

It might throw some light on this obscure subject to examine, for

several successive summers, a large number of nests, to ascertain

whether the nests of the Yellow-breast are often found without any

white unspotted eggs, or if the same proportional number of white

(parasitical) eggs are found in the nests of the Yellow-breast,

Scissor-tail, Song-Sparrow, Pipit, and other species.

103. TRUPIALIS MILITARIS (Linn.). (PATAGONIAN MARSH-STARLING.)

 

+Sturnella militaris+, _Hudson, P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 548 (Rio Negro);

      _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 38; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 33, et

      1878, p. 394 (Chupat). +Sturnella loica+, _Döring, Exp. al

      Rio Negro, Zool._ p. 41 (R. Colorado, R. Negro). +Trupialis

      militaris+, _Scl. Cat. B._ xi. p. 356. +Trupialis loyca+, _Burm.

      La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 491 (Mendoza).

 

    _Description._--Above brown, especially on the head and back

    variegated with black; superciliaries in front of the eye red,

    behind the eye white; beneath black; throat, middle of