Argentine Ornithology Volume I Part 34

When finished the structure is shaped outwardly like a baker's oven, only with a deeper and narrower entrance. It is always placed very conspicuously, and with the entrance facing a building, if one be near, or if at a roadside it looks toward the road; the reason for this being, no doubt, that the bird keeps a cautious eye on the movements of people near it while building, and so leaves the nest opened and unfinished on that side until the last, and there the entrance is necessarily formed.

When the structure has a.s.sumed the globular form with only a narrow opening, the wall on one side is curved inwards, reaching from the floor to the dome, and at the inner extremity an aperture is left to admit the bird to the interior or second chamber, in which the eggs are laid. A man's hand fits easily into the first or entrance chamber, but cannot be twisted about so as to reach the eggs in the interior cavity, the entrance being so small and high up. The interior is lined with dry soft gra.s.s, and five white pear-shaped eggs are laid. The _oven_ is a foot or more in diameter, and is sometimes very ma.s.sive, weighing eight or nine pounds, and so strong that, unless loosened by the swaying of the branch, it often remains unharmed for two or three years. The birds incubate by turns, and when one returns from the feeding-ground it sings its loud notes, on which the sitting bird rushes forth to join in the joyous chorus, and then flies away, the other taking its place on the eggs. The young are exceedingly garrulous, and when only half-fledged may be heard practising trills and duets in their secure oven, in shrill tremulous voices, which change to the usual hunger-cry of young birds when the parent enters with food. After leaving the nest, the old and young birds live for two or three months together, only one brood being raised in each year. A new oven is built every year, and I have more than once seen a second oven built on the top of the first, when this has been placed very advantageously, as on a projection and against a wall.

A very curious thing occurred at the estancia house of a neighbour of mine in Buenos Ayres one spring. A pair of Oven-birds built their oven on a beam-end projecting from the wall of a rancho. One morning one of the birds was found caught in a steel trap placed the evening before for rats, and both of its legs were crushed above the knee. On being liberated it flew up to and entered the oven, where it bled to death, no doubt, for it did not come out again. Its mate remained two days, calling incessantly, but there were no other birds of its kind in the place, and it eventually disappeared. Three days later it returned with a new mate, and immediately the two birds began carrying pellets of mud to the oven, with which they plastered up the entrance. Afterwards they built a second oven, using the sepulchre of the dead bird for its foundation, and here they reared their young. My neighbour, an old native, had watched the birds from the time the first oven was begun, feeling greatly interested in their diligent ways, and thinking their presence at his house a good omen; and it was not strange that, after witnessing the entombment of one that died, he was more convinced than ever that the little House-builders are "pious birds."

179. FURNARIUS TRICOLOR, Cab.

(CRESTED OVEN-BIRD.)

+Furnarius tricolor+, _Cab. Journ. f. Orn._ 1878, p. 196 (Cordova).

+Furnarius figulus+, _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 609 (?).

_Description._--Above nearly uniform earthy brown, head slightly crested; tail bright ferruginous; beneath paler, throat pure white; middle of belly and crissum white; under surface of wings blackish, with a transverse bar of pale cinnamon; bill hazel, paler at the base; feet blackish: whole length 57 inches, wing 28, tail 22.

_Hab._ Cordova.

This pretty little species is a recent discovery of Doring in the Sierras of Cordova; it may be at once recognized by its small size and crested head.

180. UPUCERTHIA DUMETORIA (Geoffr. et d'Orb.).

(PATAGONIAN EARTH-CREEPER.)

+Ochetorhynchus dumetorius+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 463 (Mendoza). +Upucerthia dumetoria+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p.

62; _Hudson, P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 544 (Rio Negro); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 35, et 1878, p. 395 (Chupat); _White, P. Z. S._ 1883, p. 433 (Cordova).

_Description._--Above earthy brown; long superciliary stripe pale ochraceous; wings blackish, with a broad transverse cinnamomeous bar; tail blackish, lateral rectrices tipped with pale cinnamon; beneath dirty white, clear white on the throat and middle of the belly; breast-feathers margined with blackish; under wing-coverts pale cinnamomeous; bill dark horn-colour, pale at the base; feet horn-colour: whole length 90 inches, wing 40, tail 35. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Patagonia and Chili.

These birds are very common in Patagonia, being resident there; some individuals, however, migrate north in winter, and I once obtained a pair, male and female, near Buenos Ayres city in the month of June.

Their legs are short, but on the ground their movements are very rapid, and, like the Miner (_Geositta_) already described, they fly reluctantly, preferring to run rapidly from a person walking or riding, and at such times they look curiously like a very small Curlew with an extravagantly long beak. They are active, lively birds, and live in pairs, sometimes uniting in small, loose flocks; they are partial to places where scattered bushes grow on a dry sterile soil, and have a swift low flight; when flying they frequently utter a shrill, trilling, or rapidly reiterated note, in sound resembling laughter. In manners, flight, language, and colouring this bird closely resembles the smaller short-beaked _Geositta cunicularia_, and like that species it also breeds in deep holes in banks; but I am not able to say whether it excavates the breeding-hole or takes possession of one already made.

Durnford found it breeding in a hole four feet deep in the bank of a dry lagoon. The nest was of dry gra.s.s and lined with the fur of the cavy. It contained three white eggs.

181. UPUCERTHIA RUFICAUDA (Meyen).

(RED-TAILED EARTH-CREEPER.)

+Ochetorhynchus ruficauda+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 463 (Mendoza).

_Description._--Above earthy brown, superciliaries whitish, lower half of back and outer secondaries strongly tinged with rufous; tail deep ferruginous red, inner webs of all the lateral rectrices black; beneath white, breast more or less freckled with greyish; belly, flanks, and crissum pale cinnamomeous brown; under surface of wings blackish, with a transverse cinnamomeous bar; bill and feet blackish: whole length 80 inches, wing 35, tail 33. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Chili and Mendoza.

The straight bill and red colour of the tail-feathers at once distinguish this species from the former. Burmeister obtained specimens of it in the Sierra of Uspallata, where it was met with hopping about the rocks and feeding on insects.

182. UPUCERTHIA LUSCINIA (Burm.).

(WARBLING EARTH-CREEPER.)

+Ochetorhynchus luscinia+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 464 (Mendoza, Parana). +Upucerthia luscinia+, _Scl. et Salv.

Nomencl._ p. 62; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 610 (Catamarca); _Salvin, Ibis_, 1880, p. 358 (Salta).

_Description._--Above earthy brown; front, lores, and rim round the eye bright rufous; wings blackish, outer webs more or less edged with rufous earthy brown; tail earthy brown, lateral rectrices tinged with rufous; below pale cinereous with a slight rufescent tinge; throat clear white; under wing-coverts and inner margins of the wing-feathers cinnamon-red; bill hazel, paler at the base; feet pale brown: whole length 75 inches, wing 30, tail 31. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Argentina.

Professor Burmeister was the first discoverer of this species, which he tells us is common near Mendoza, in Parana, and in the neighbouring pampas. In Parana he found it nesting under the roof of his house and feeding upon insects. The eggs are pure white. It is the _Ruisinor_ or "Nightingale" of the natives, whence he gave it the specific name _luscinia_--a strange name for any species in the shrill-voiced Dendrocolaptine family.

183. CINCLODES FUSCUS (Vieill.).

(BROWN CINCLODES.)

+Cinclodes fuscus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 62; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 179 (Buenos Ayres); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 610 (Catamarca); _Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ viii. p. 205 (Entrerios and Pampas). +Cinclodes vulgaris+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 463 (Mendoza, Parana).

_Description._--Above dark earthy brown, lores and superciliaries whitish; wings blackish, with a broad transverse cinnamomeous bar; outer tail-feathers blackish, broadly tipped with pale cinnamomeous white; beneath pale cinereous, with a cinnamomeous tinge; throat white, slightly spotted with blackish; bill and feet horn-colour: whole length 73 inches, wing 40, tail 30. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Argentina, Chili, Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador.

This homely little species differs considerably from most Dendrocolaptine birds in colour and habits; and being of a uniform dull, fuscous hue, its appearance is most uninteresting. It inhabits the whole of Patagonia, but is migratory, possessing, what is rare in this family, a powerful flight. In winter it is common all over the pampas and the Plata district, ranging north to Paraguay. It is always found near water, its favourite hunting-ground being the borders of a stream. On the ground its motions are quick and lively, but when perching on a tree it sits motionless in one position, and when attempting to move appears to lose its balance. These birds cannot be called strictly gregarious, but where abundant they are fond of gathering in loose flocks, sometimes numbering one or two hundred individuals, and when thus a.s.sociating are very playful, frequently pursuing and wheeling about each other, and uttering a sharp, trilling note. On a warm day in winter they are occasionally heard attempting to sing, the bird darting up vertically into the air and pouring out with great energy a confused torrent of unmelodious sounds.

Their habits, so much less sedate and strikingly in contrast with those of most of the birds in this family, are no doubt due to the greater powers of flight possessed by _Cinclodes_.

184. CINCLODES BIFASCIATUS, Sclater.

(WHITE-WINGED CINCLODES.)

+Cinclodes bifasciatus+, _Sclater, P. Z. S._ 1858, p. 448.

_Description._--Above earthy brown with a rufescent tinge on the back, superciliaries white; wings blackish, with a white bar on the secondaries and a second white bar on the inner primaries; tail blackish, outer rectrices tipped with white; beneath white, pa.s.sing into greyish cinnamomeous on the flanks and crissum; bend of the wing and under wing-coverts white; bill and feet horn-colour: whole length 80 inches, wing 40, tail 33.

_Hab._ Bolivia and Eastern Argentina.

Weisshaupt obtained examples of this species in the vicinity of Mendoza, from one of which our description is taken.

185. HENICORNIS PHNICURUS (Gould).

(DARK-TAILED HENICORNIS.)

+Henicornis phnicurus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 62; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1878, p. 395 (Central Patagonia).

_Description._--Above earthy brown, slight superciliary line white, edges of outer secondaries, lower back, and upper tail-coverts bright ferruginous red; tail black, outer webs of outer tail-feathers and slight external edging of the others bright ferruginous; beneath, throat and breast pure white, belly cinereous, flanks tinged with rufous; crissum bright ferruginous; bill dark horn-colour, base of lower mandible yellowish; feet horn-colour: whole length 75 inches, wing 33, tail 30.