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

is deep, well made, plastered inside with mud, and concealed in

the centre of a large bush or low tree. The eggs are four, pale blue in

colour, and thickly spotted with brown.

3. TURDUS MAGELLANICUS, King. ((MAGELLANIC THRUSH.))

 

+Turdus magellanicus+, _Seebohm, Cat. B._ v. p. 223, pl. xiv. +Turdus

      falklandicus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 2; _Hudson, P. Z. S._

      1872, p. 548 (Rio Negro); _Döring, Exp. al Rio Negro, Zool._ p.

      36 (R. Colorado and R. Negro).

 

    _Description._--Head, wings, and tail brownish black; the remaining

    portions of upper surface brownish olive; under surface pale

    rufous, obscure on the breast; throat white, striped with black;

    bill and feet dull yellow: total length 10·5 inches, wing 7·5, tail

    4·0. _Female_ similar.

 

_Hab._ Patagonia and Chili.

 

This Thrush, which I met with on the Rio Negro of Patagonia, so closely

approximates to _T. rufiventris_ in colour, language, and habits, that

the casual observer finds it difficult to distinguish one from the

other. Its nest and eggs are also precisely like those of its northern

representative. The song is, however, much poorer, and reminds one of

the first attempts of a young bird. That a member of so melodious a

family should have so inferior a song I attribute to the fact that

Thrushes (unlike the songsters of other genera) sing only in the

warm season and when the air is calm. In the southern portion of the

South-American continent violent winds prevail in summer, so that this

southern Thrush sings perhaps less frequently than any other song-bird,

and appears to be losing the faculty of song altogether.

4. TURDUS FUSCATER, d'Orb. et Lafr. ((ARGENTINE BLACKBIRD.))

 

+Turdus fuscater+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 2; _White, P. Z. S._

      1882, p. 593 (Catamarca); _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 474

      (Mendoza, Cordova, and Tucuman). +Merula fuscatra+, _Seebohm,

      Cat. B._ v. p. 243.

 

    _Description._--Uniform brownish black; bill and feet yellow: total

    length 11·5 inches, wing 5·3, tail 4·5. _Female_ similar.

 

_Hab._ Bolivia and Northern La Plata.

 

"I have noticed this bird in the provinces of Mendoza, San Juan, San

Luis, Cordova, and Catamarca, where it is much esteemed as a cage-bird

on account of its beautiful whistle. In Mendoza it goes by the name of

'Zorsal,' in Catamarca and Cordova by that of 'Merlo,' and in Andalgala

(Catamarca province) 'Chocoyno.'"--_White, l. s. c._

 

"Very common at Mendoza, Cordova, and Tucuman, and met with among the

shady trees of the promenades: has a better song than our Blackbird,

which is heard at a distance, especially in the evening. Called

'Crispin' in Tucuman."--_Burm. l. s. c._

5. TURDUS NIGRICEPS, Cab. ( (BLACK-HEADED THRUSH.))

 

+Turdus nigriceps+, _Cab. J. f. O._ 1878, p. 195.

 

    _Description._--Above slaty grey, head black; below paler, chin

    white, striped with black; middle of belly and crissum white; bill

    and feet pale yellow: total length 7·6 inches, wing 4·4, tail 3·5.

    _Female_ olive-brown, paler below, chin pale ochraceous; middle of

    belly and crissum white; bill brown, feet yellowish.

 

_Hab._ Peru, Bolivia, and Northern La Plata.

 

Met with by Dr. A. Döring and Herr Schulz on the Sierra of Cordova.

6. MIMUS MODULATOR, Gould. ((CALANDRIA MOCKING-BIRD.))

 

+Mimus modulator+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ vi. p. 347. +Mimus calandria+,

      _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 475; _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p.

      3; _Hudson, P. Z. S._ 1870, p. 89 (Buenos Ayres); _Durnford,

      Ibis_, 1877, p. 167 (Buenos Ayres); _White, P. Z. S._ 1883, p. 37

      (Cordova); _Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ viii. p. 85

      (Concepcion).

 

    _Description._--Above dark grey, faintly mottled with pale grey;

    rump tinged with brown; wings nearly black, the feathers edged with

    brownish white; tail black, the feathers, except the two middle

    ones, broadly tipped with white; under surface dirty white; bill and

    legs black; eye olive-green: total length 11·0 inches, wing 4·5,

    tail 4·9. _Female_ similar.

 

_Hab._ Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentine Republic.

 

Azara has not failed to remark that it would be well to find a more

appropriate name for this species, which was absurdly called "Calandria"

(_i. e._ Sky-Lark) by the early colonists of the Plata. Use is, however,

too strong to be easily set aside, and the name is now familiar to

everyone in the Argentine Province. Moreover, by a curious irony of

fate, the Spanish naturalist himself, by employing this unsuitable name

in his 'Apuntamientos,' even while protesting against it, has been the

cause of its introduction into scientific nomenclature.

 

It would be impossible to improve on the account Azara gives of the

bird's appearance and manners. The prevailing colour of the plumage is

grey, the irides are deep green, the beak black, slender, and curved.

The tail is long, jerked and elevated when the bird is at rest, spread

open and depressed in flight. The Calandria's movements are measured

and dignified, its flight low and never extends far, the bird usually

passing from one tree to another in a long graceful curve. It goes alone

or with its mate only; feeds chiefly on the ground; does not penetrate

into deep forests, nor is it seen on the treeless plains. It frequents

the borders of woods and open grounds abounding in isolated shrubs and

trees; is fond of coming about houses, and invariably perches itself

on the most conspicuous places. It sings chiefly in spring, and its

really wonderful vocal powers have made it one of our best-known and

most-admired songsters. To sing it usually places itself on the summit

of a bush or tree, and occasionally, as if carried away by excitement,

it darts upwards three or four yards into the air, and then drops back

on to its perch. So varied are its notes, and so frequently suggestive

of the language of other species, that the listener finds himself

continually asking whether the Calandria is really an original singer or

merely a cunning plagiarist, able to steal scraps of fifty different

melodies and to blend them in some sort into one complete composition.

As a whole the song is in character utterly unlike that of any other

bird (birds of the _Mimus_ genus, of course, excepted), for the same

notes are never repeated twice in the same order; and though the

Calandria has many favourite notes, he is able to vary every one of

them a hundred ways. Sometimes the whole song seems to be made up of

imitations of other singers, with slight variations--and not of singers

only, for now there will be clear flute-like notes, only to be succeeded

by others reedy and querulous as the hunger-calls of a young Finch; then

there will be pretty flourishes or Thrush-like phrases, and afterwards

screams, as of a frightened Swallow hurrying through the sky to announce

the approach of a Falcon; or perhaps piteous outcries, as of a chicken

in the clutches of a Kite.

 

Nevertheless Azara says truly that the Calandria does not mock or mimic

the songs of other birds; for though the style and intonation of a score

of different singers, chatterers, and screamers are reproduced by him,

one can never catch a song, or even a portion of a song, of which he is

able to say that it is absolutely like that of any other species. This

much, however, can be said of the Calandria: he has a passion for

endless variety in singing, a capacity for varying his tones to almost

any extent, and a facility for catching the notes of other birds, which,

in the Virginian Mocking-bird of North, and in the White-banded

Mocking-bird of South America, has been developed into that marvellous

faculty these two species possess of faithfully imitating the songs of

all other birds. The two species I have just named, while mockers of

the songs of other birds, also retain their own original music--their

"natural song," as an American ornithologist calls it.

 

The Calandria makes its nest in the middle of a large bush or low

thorn-tree standing by itself; it is deep, like the nest of a Thrush in

form, built of sticks, thorns, and grass, and lined with thistle-down or

some other soft material. The eggs are four or five, pale blue, and

thickly marked with reddish-brown spots.

 

When the nest is approached the parent birds demonstrate their anxiety

by uttering loud harsh angry notes.

 

It is generally believed that the Calandria will not live in captivity.

I have, however, seen a few individuals in cages, but they never sang.

7. MIMUS PATACHONICUS (d'Orb. et Lafr.). ((PATAGONIAN MOCKING-BIRD.))

 

+Mimus patachonicus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 3; _Hudson, P. Z.

      S._ 1872, p. 538 (Rio Negro); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 31

      (Chupat); _Döring, Exp. al Rio Negro, Zool._ p. 36 (R. Colorado);

      _Sharpe, Cat. B._ vi. p. 352. +Mimus thenca+, _Burm. La-Plata

      Reise_, ii. p. 475 (Mendoza)?

 

    _Description._--Above and beneath grey, paler on the under surface,

    and tinged with rufous on the belly; throat and mark over the eye

    white; wings black, the outer webs of the