Argentine Ornithology Volume I Part 2

_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 110 inches, wing 45, tail 49. _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 pa.s.sing 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 sc.r.a.ps 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 pa.s.sion 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 gra.s.s, 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); _Doring, 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 feathers edged with white and grey; tail black, tipped with white; bill and feet black; eye olive-green: total length 92 inches, wing 42, tail 40. _Female_ similar, but smaller in size and lighter in colour.

_Hab._ Northern Patagonia.

The Patagonian Mocking-bird, which I met with during my sojourn on the Rio Negro of Patagonia in 1871, closely resembles the species just described, but is smaller, the plumage is of a darker grey, and the irides are also of a darker green. It is a common bird, resident, lives alone or with its mate, feeds on insects and berries, and in its manner of flight and habits is like _Mimus modulator_. The nest is made in the centre of a bush of thorns and sticks, and lined with dry gra.s.s, cow-hair, or other soft material; and the eggs are four in number, bluntly pointed, and thickly marked with dark flesh-coloured spots.

When the nest is approached the parent birds come close to the intruder, often perching within a yard of his head, but without uttering any sound, differing in this respect from _M. modulator_.

The song of the Patagonian bird is in character like that of the northern species, the variety of its notes being apparently infinite; there are, however, some differences worth mentioning. The singing of the Patagonian species is perhaps inferior, his voice being less powerful, while his mellow and clear notes are constantly mingled with shrill ones, resembling the cries of some of the Dendrocolaptine birds.

While incapable of notes so loud or so harsh as those of the northern bird, or of changes so wild and sudden, he possesses even a greater variety of soft notes. Day after day for many months I have heard them singing, yet never once listened to them for any length of time without hearing some note or phrase I had never heard before. The remarks I have made concerning the Calandria's mocking-faculties also apply to this bird: but though he does not actually repeat the notes and songs of other species, he certainly does mock the notes of individuals of his own species; for it must be borne in mind that no two individuals sing quite alike, and that the same bird constantly introduces new notes into his song, and never repeats his notes in the same order. I have often observed that when a bird, while singing, emits a few of these _new_ notes, he seems surprised and delighted with them; for, after a silent pause, he repeats them again and again a vast number of times, as if to impress them on his memory. When he once more resumes his varied singing, for hours, and sometimes for days, the expression he has discovered is still a favourite one, and recurs with the greatest frequency. But this is not all. If the new note or phrase happens to be a very striking one, it immediately takes the fancy of all the other birds within hearing, and often in a small thicket there will be a dozen or twenty birds near together, each sitting perched on the summit of his own bush. After the new wonderful note has been sounded they all become silent and attentive, reminding one in their manner of a caged Parrot listening to a sound it is trying to learn. Presently they learn it, and are as pleased with its acquisition as if they had discovered it themselves, repeating it incessantly. I noticed this curious habit of the bird many times, and on one occasion I found that for three entire days all the birds in a small thicket I used to visit every day did nothing but repeat incessantly two or three singular notes which they had borrowed from one of their number. The constant repet.i.tion of this one sound had a strongly irritating effect on me; but a day or two later they had apparently got tired of it themselves, and had resumed their usual varied singing.

This bird usually sits still upon the summit of a bush when singing, and its music is heard in all seasons and in all weathers from dawn till after dark: as a rule it sings in a leisurely unexcited manner, remaining silent for some time after every five or six or a dozen notes, and apparently listening to his brother-performers. These s.n.a.t.c.hes of melody often seem like a prelude or promise of something better coming; there is often in them such exquisite sweetness and so much variety that the hearer is ever wishing for a fuller measure, and still the bird opens his bill to delight and disappoint him, as if not yet ready to display his whole power.

8. MIMUS TRIURUS (Vieill.).

(WHITE-BANDED MOCKING-BIRD.)

[Plate I.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: MIMUS TRIURUS.]

+Mimus triurus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 3; _Hudson, P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 539 (Rio Negro); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 593 (Buenos Ayres); _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 475 (Mendoza, Cordova, and Tuc.u.man); _Sharpe, Cat. B._ vi. p. 342.

_Description._--Above grey, brown on the rump; beneath light grey, white on the belly; wing black, crossed with a broad white band; tail white, except the two middle feathers, which are black; bill and feet black; eye orange-yellow: total length 95 inches, wing 48, tail 42. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Paraguay, Argentine Republic, and Bolivia.

Azara first met with this king of the Mocking-birds in Paraguay a century ago; he named it "Calandria de las tres colas," and described the plumage accurately, but was, I think, mistaken about the colour of the eye, which is orange-red and not olive-green. He says that it is a rare species, possessing no melodious notes, which proves at once that he never heard it sing. D'Orbigny obtained it in Bolivia, Bridges in Mendoza, and more recently it his been found by collectors in various parts of the Argentine country, even in Buenos Ayres, where, however, it is probably only an occasional visitor. But they have told us nothing of its song and of its miraculous mocking-powers. For my part I can think of no other way to describe the surpa.s.sing excellence of its melody, which delights the soul beyond all other bird-music, than by saying that this bird is among song-birds like the diamond among stones, which in its many-coloured splendour represents and exceeds the special beauty of every other gem.

I met with this species on the Rio Negro in Patagonia: it was there called _Calandria blanca_, a name not strictly accurate, since the bird is not all white, but certainly better than Azara's strange invention of "Lark with three tails."

The bird was not common in Patagonia, and its only language was a very loud harsh startled note, resembling that of the _Mimus calandria_; but it was past the love-season when I first met with it, and the natives all a.s.sured me that it possessed a very wonderful song, surpa.s.sing the songs of all other birds; also that it had the faculty of imitating other species. In manners and appearance it struck me as being utterly unlike a _Mimus_; in its flight and in the conspicuous white and black of the wings and tail, it looked like a Tyrant of the _Taenioptera_ group. It was extremely shy, had a swift, easy, powerful flight, and, when approached, would rise up high in the air and soar away to a great distance. In February it disappeared from the Rio Negro and did not return till the following October, after the arrival of all the other migrants. It was then that I had the rare good fortune to hear it sing, and I shall never forget the sensation I experienced when listening to its matchless melody.

While walking through a _chanar_-wood one bright morning, my attention was suddenly arrested by notes issuing from a thicket close by, and to which I listened in delighted astonishment, so vastly superior in melody, strength, and variety did they seem to all other bird-music.

That it was the song of a _Mimus_ did not occur to me; for while the music came in a continuous stream, until I marvelled that the throat of any bird could sustain so powerful and varied a song for so long a time, it was never once degraded by the harsh cries, fantastical flights, and squealing buffooneries so frequently introduced by the Calandria, but every note was in harmony and uttered with a rapidity and joyous abandon no other bird is capable of, except, perhaps, the Sky-Lark; while the purity of the sounds gave to the whole performance something of the ethereal rapturous character of the Lark's song when it comes to the listener from a great height in the air.

Presently this flow of exquisite unfamiliar music ceased, while I still remained standing amongst the trees, not daring to move for fear of scaring away the strange vocalist. After a short interval of silence I had a fresh surprise. From the very spot whence that torrent of melody had issued, burst out the shrill, confused, impetuous song of the small yellow-and-grey Patagonian Flycatcher (_Stigmatura flavo-cinerea_). It irritated me to hear this familiar and trivial song after the other, and I began to fear that my entertainer had flown away un.o.bserved. But in another moment, from the same spot, came the mellow matin-song of the Diuca Finch, and this was quickly succeeded by the silvery bell-like trilling song of the Churinche, or little Scarlet Tyrant-bird.

Then followed many other familiar notes and songs--the flute-like evening-call of the Crested Tinamou, the gay hurried twittering of the Black-headed Goldfinch, and the leisurely-uttered, delicious strains of the Yellow Cardinal, all repeated with miraculous fidelity. How much was my wonder and admiration increased by the discovery that my one sweet singer had produced all these diverse strains! The discovery was only made when he began to repeat songs of species that never visit Patagonia. I knew then that I was at last listening to the famed White Mocking-bird, just returned from his winter travels, and repeating in this southern region the notes he had acquired in subtropical forests a thousand miles away.

These imitations at length ceased, after which the sweet vocalist resumed his own matchless song once more. I ventured then to creep a little nearer, and at length caught sight of him not fifteen yards away.

I then found that the pleasure of listening to its melody was greatly enhanced when I could at the same time see the bird, so carried away with rapture does he seem while singing, so many and so beautiful are the gestures and motions with which his notes are accompanied. He pa.s.ses incessantly from bush to bush, scarcely alighting on their summits, and at times dropping down beneath the foliage; then, at intervals, soaring to a height of a hundred feet above the thicket, with a flight slow as that of a Heron, or mounting suddenly upwards with a wild, hurried, zigzag motion; then slowly circling downwards, to sit with tail outspread and the broad glistening white wings expanded, or languidly waved up and down like the wings of some great b.u.t.terfly--an object beautiful to see.

When I first heard this bird sing I felt convinced that no other feathered songster on the globe could compare with it; for besides the faculty of reproducing the songs of other species, which it possesses in common with the Virginian Mocking-bird, it has a song of its own, which I believed matchless; and in this belief I was confirmed when, shortly after hearing it, I visited England, and found of how much less account than this Patagonian bird, which no poet has ever praised, were the sweetest of the famed melodists of the Old World.

Fam. II. CINCLIDae, or DIPPERS.

The Dippers, const.i.tuting the genus _Cinclus_ and the family Cinclidae, are sparingly distributed, princ.i.p.ally in the Alpine Regions which contain clear and perennial streams, throughout the Palaearctic and Nearctic Regions. In the Neotropical Region they are represented by three species, one of which is found in the northern provinces of the Argentine Republic.

9. CINCLUS SCHULZI, Cab.

(SCHULZ'S DIPPER.)

[Plate II.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: CINCLUS SCHULZI.]

+Cinclus schulzi+, _Cab. J. f. O._ 1883, p. 102, t. ii. fig. 3.

_Description._--Dark grey; throat pale rufous; a broad bar on the inner webs of the wing-feathers white: total length 55 inches, wing 30, tail 16.

_Hab._ Northern Argentina.

A recent discovery of Herr Fritsch Schulz, who obtained specimens of it on the Cerro Vayo of Tuc.u.man, where this species, like others of the genus, frequents the mountain-streams.