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

mottled with black, each

    feather being marked with a large black spot; on the upper part of

    the back the feathers are faintly edged with whitish grey; wings

    blackish, basal halves of feathers pale clear brown, forming a

    transverse bar, the terminal part of the feathers slightly edged on

    the outer webs and tips with ochraceous; tail blackish, the outer

    pair of rectrices and broad tips of the next two pairs on each side

    very pale brown, the two middle feathers broadly margined on both

    webs with pale greyish brown; beneath pale ochraceous brown, with a

    pale sulphur-yellowish gular spot; flanks with a few black marks;

    under wing-coverts light cinnamon; bill and feet pale horn-colour:

    whole length 7·8 inches, wing 3·2, tail 3·5. _Female_ similar.

 

_Hab._ Argentina.

 

This Spine-tail, which Sclater has named after me, is the Argentine

representative of _S. humicola_ of Chili. It is common on the pampas,

and is sometimes called by the gauchos "_Tiru-riru del campo_," on

account of its resemblance in the upper plumage and in language to

_Anumbius acuticaudatus_, which is named "_Tiru-riru_," in imitation of

its call-note. The addition of _del campo_ signifies that it is a bird

of the open country. It is, in fact, found exclusively on the grassy

pampas, never perching on trees, and in habits is something like a

Pipit, usually being taken for one when first seen. It is quite common

everywhere on the pampas, and specimens have also been obtained in

Cordova, Uruguay, and Patagonia.

 

This Spine-tail is resident, solitary, and extremely timid and stealthy

in its movements, living always on the ground among the long grass and

cardoon-thistles. At times its inquisitiveness overcomes its timidity,

and the bird then darts up three or four yards into the air, and jerking

its tail remains some moments poised aloft with breast towards the

intruder, emitting sharp little notes of alarm, after which it darts

down again and disappears in the grass. When driven up it has a wild

zigzag flight, and after reaching a considerable height in the air darts

down again with astonishing swiftness, and comes back to the very spot

from which it rose. It is, however, incapable of sustained flight, and

after being flushed two or three times refuses to rise again. In spring

the male perches on the summit of a cardoon-bush, or other slight

elevation, and at regular intervals utters a pleasing and melancholy

kind of song or call, which can be heard distinctly at a distance of a

thousand yards, composed of four long clear plaintive notes, increasing

in strength, and succeeded by a falling trill. When approached it

becomes silent, and dropping to the ground conceals itself in the grass.

Under a cardoon-bush or tussock of grass it scoops out a slight hollow

in the ground, and builds over this a dome of fine dry grass, leaving a

small aperture arched like the door of a baker's oven. The bed is lined

with dry powdered horse-dung, and the eggs are five, bluntly pointed and

of a very pale buff colour. The interior of the nest is so small that

when the five young birds are fledged they appear to be packed together

very closely, so that it is difficult to conceive how the parent bird

passes in and out.

 

The nest is always very cunningly concealed, and I have often spent days

searching in a patch of cardoon-bushes where the birds were breeding

without being able to find it.

 

 

SYNALLAXIS MALUROIDES, d'Orb.

 

(WREN-LIKE SPINE-TAIL.)

 

  +Synallaxis maluroides+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 64; _Scl. P. Z.

      S._ 1874, p. 26; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 180, et 1878, p. 61

      (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ viii. p. 208

      (Entrerios).

 

    _Description._--Above, front and middle of crown chestnut; hind

    head, neck, and back pale fulvous brown, thickly marked with

    longitudinal black shaft-spots; lores white; wings blackish, the

    feathers edged with pale ochraceous, the basal part of secondaries

    very pale brown, forming a transverse bar; tail pale chestnut-brown,

    the two middle feathers with a broad black mark on the inner web;

    beneath white, breast and flanks washed with pale brown, and

    freckled with very small dark brown spots; under wing-coverts white;

    bill and feet pale horn-colour: whole length 6·1 inches, wing 2·0,

    tail 2·9. _Female_ similar.

 

_Hab._ South Argentina.

 

D'Orbigny discovered this small Spine-tail near Buenos Ayres city,

but did not record its habits. Like the species just described it is

abundant on the pampas, but in its habits resembles a Wren of the genus

_Cistothorus_ rather than a Pipit, being partial to moist situations,

where there is a rank growth of grass and herbage. The wings are very

short, and the flight so feeble that the bird refuses to rise after

being pursued a distance of one or two hundred yards. And yet I am not

prepared to say that it does not migrate, as I have found that in spring

it all at once becomes very abundant, while in the cold season it is

rarely seen. It is solitary, and in spring sits on a thistle or stalk,

uttering at short intervals its small grasshopper-like song or call. The

nest is a slight open structure of grass, lined with a few feathers,

placed in a tuft of grass or reeds. The eggs are pure white in colour.

 

 

CORYPHISTERA ALAUDINA, Burm.

 

(LARK-LIKE CORYPHISTERA.)

 

  +Coryphistera alaudina+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 470 (Paraná);

      _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 64; _Salv. Ibis_, 1880, p. 359

      (Tucuman, Salta); _White, P. Z. S._ 1883, p. 40 (Cordova).

 

    _Description._--Above dark greyish brown; elongated crest-feathers

    blackish; ear-coverts chestnut; on the back, upper tail-coverts, and

    upper wing-coverts the feathers have white and whity-brown edgings;

    wing-feathers blackish, the basal part of the inner webs pale brown;

    rectrices bright chestnut, broadly tipped with blackish; beneath

    white, thickly striated with fulvous brown; under wing-coverts pale

    cinnamon; bill and feet light brown: whole length 6·2 inches, wing

    2·7, tail 2·3. _Female_ similar.

 

_Hab._ Argentina.

 

This highly interesting little bird, the only known member of its genus,

inhabits the dry plains of Paraná and Cordova.

 

The following meagre note from White, which only serves to excite

curiosity, comprises all that we know of its habits:--

 

"These birds are not found in dense woods, but in the open, tenanted

only by a few small trees or bushes. Five or six are usually seen

running about together with a quick, abrupt movement, meanwhile uttering

a sharp cry."

 

 

ANUMBIUS ACUTICAUDATUS (Less.).

 

(FIREWOOD-GATHERER.)

 

  +Anumbius acuticaudatus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 467 (Paraná,

      Mendoza); _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 64; _Hudson, P. Z. S._

      1874, p. 159 (Buenos Ayres); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 181

      (Buenos Ayres); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 612 (Buenos Ayres);

      _Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ viii. p. 211 (Entrerios).

 

    _Description._--Above earthy brown, forehead chestnut, superciliaries

    white, head, neck, and back marked with black striations; primaries

    blackish, secondaries pale chestnut-brown; tail black, all the

    feathers except the middle pair broadly tipped with cream-colour;

    beneath pale ochraceous brown, white on the throat, the white

    bordered on each side by numerous small black spots; bill and feet

    pale horn-colour: whole length 8·3 inches, wing 3·6, tail 3·7.

    _Female_ similar.

 

_Hab._ Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay.

 

This is a common and very well-known species throughout the Argentine

country and Patagonia, also in Uruguay and Paraguay, and is variously

called _Espinero_ (Thorn-bird), _Tiru-riru_, in imitation of its note,

and _Añumbi_ (the Guarani name); but its best known name is _Leñatero_,

or "Firewood-Gatherer," from the quantity of sticks which it collects

for building-purposes.

 

The Firewood-Gatherer is a resident in Argentina, and pairs for life.

Sometimes the young birds remain with their parents for a period of

three or four months, all the family going about and feeding in company,

and roosting together in the old nest. The nest and the tree where it

is placed are a favourite resort all the year round. Here the birds sit

perched a great deal, and repeat at intervals a song or call, composed

of four or five loud ticking chirps, followed by a long trilling note.

They feed exclusively on the ground, where they creep about, carrying

the body horizontally and intently searching for insects. When

disturbed, they hurry to their usual refuge, rapidly beating their very

feeble wings, and expanding the broad acuminated tail like a fan. When

the male and female meet at their nest, after a brief separation, they

sing their notes in concert, as if rejoicing over their safe reunion;

but they seldom separate, and Azara says that when one incubates, the

other sits at the entrance to the nest, and that when one returns to the

nest with food for the young the other accompanies it, though it has

found nothing to carry.

 

To build, the _Añumbi_ makes choice of an isolated tree in an open

situation, and prefers a dwarf tree with very scanty foliage; for small

projecting twigs and leaves hinder the worker when carrying up sticks.

This is a most laborious operation, as the sticks are large and the

bird's flight is feeble. If the tree is to its liking, it matters

not how much exposed to the winds it may be, or how close to a human

habitation, for the bird is utterly unconcerned by the presence of man.

I have frequently seen a nest in a shade or ornamental tree within ten

yards of the main entrance to a house; and I have also seen several

on the tall upright stakes of a horse-corral, and the birds working

quietly, with a herd of half-wild horses rushing round the enclosure

beneath them, pursued by the men with lassos. The bird uses large sticks

for building, and drops a great many; frequently as much fallen material

as would fill a barrow lies under the tree. The fallen stick is not

picked up again, as the bird could not rise vertically with its load,

and is not intelligent enough, I suppose, to recover the fallen stick,

and to carry it away thirty yards from the tree and then rise obliquely.

It consequently goes far afield in quest of a fresh one, and having got

one to its liking, carefully takes it up exactly by the middle, and,

carrying it like a balancing-pole, returns to the nest, where, if one

end happens to hit against a projecting twig, it drops like the first.

The bird is not discouraged, but, after a brief interview with its mate,

flies cheerfully away to gather more wood.

 

Durnford writes wonderingly of the partiality for building in poplar

trees shown by this bird in Buenos Ayres, and says that in a tall tree

the nest is sometimes placed sixty or seventy feet above the ground, and

that the bird almost invariably rises with a stick at such a distance

from the tree as to be able just to make the nest, but that sometimes

failing it alights further down, and then climbs up the twigs with its

stick. He attributes the choice of the tall poplar to _ambition_; but

the _Añumbi_ has really a much simpler and lowlier motive. In the rich

Buenos Ayres soil all trees have a superabundance of foliage, and in the

slim poplar alone can the nest be placed where the bird can reach it

laden with building-material, without coming in contact with long

projecting twigs.

 

The nest of the _Añumbi_ is about two feet in depth, and from ten

to twelve inches in diameter, and rests in an oblique position

amongst the branches. The entrance is at the top, and a crooked or

spiral passage-way leads down to the lower extremity, where the

breeding-chamber is situated; this is lined with wool and soft grass,

and five white eggs are laid, varying considerably in form, some being

much more sharply pointed than others.

 

The nest, being so secure and comfortable an abode, is greatly coveted

by several other species of birds to breed in; but on this subject

I have already spoken in the account of the genus _Molothrus_. When

deprived of their nest, the birds immediately set to work to make a new

one; but often enough, without being ejected from the first they build a

second nest, sometimes demolishing the first work to use the materials.

I watched one pair make three nests before laying; another pair made two

nests, and after the second was completed they returned to the first and

there elected to remain. Two or three nests are sometimes seen on one

tree, and Azara says he has seen as many as six. Mr. Barrows observed

the bird at Concepcion, where it is very common, and writes that in that

district the nest is sometimes four feet long with an average diameter

of two feet, and that the same nest in some cases is used for several

seasons successively; also that several nests are sometimes joined

together and all occupied at the same time.

 

 

LIMNORNIS CURVIROSTRIS, Gould.

 

(CURVED-BILL