Argentine Ornithology Volume I Part 4

_Hab._ Argentina, Patagonia, and Falkland Islands.

This small Wren is rarely seen, being nowhere common, although widely distributed. It prefers open grounds covered with dense reeds and gra.s.ses, where it easily escapes observation. I have met with it near Buenos Ayres city; also on the desert pampas, in the tall pampas-gra.s.s.

It is likewise met with along the Parana river, and in Chili, Patagonia, and the Falkland Islands. In the last-named locality Darwin found it common, and says that it has there an extremely feeble flight, so that it may easily be run down and taken.

The Marsh-Wren has a sweet and delicate song, resembling that of the House-Wren (_Troglodytes furvus_), but much less powerful. It does not migrate; and on the pampas I have heard it singing with great animation when the pampas-gra.s.s, where it sat perched, was white with frozen dew. Probably its song, like that of _Troglodytes furvus_, varies in different districts; at all events, the pampas bird does not possess so fine a song as Azara ascribes to his "Todo Voz" in Paraguay, which is undoubtedly the same species.

Fam. V. MOTACILLIDae, or WAGTAILS.

The Wagtails and Pipits are closely-allied forms, and are usually referred to the same family of Oscines. The Wagtails are restricted to the Old World, although it has been recently ascertained that some of them occasionally occur as stragglers in the northern lat.i.tudes of America. Of the almost cosmopolitan Pipits about eight or nine species are sparingly distributed over the prairies and pampas of the New World.

One of these is a common resident in the pampas of Argentina, and another (perhaps somewhat doubtful species) is occasionally met with.

15. ANTHUS CORRENDERA, Vieill.

(CACHILA PIPIT.)

+Anthus correndera+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 8; _Hudson, P. Z.

S._ 1873, p. 771 (Buenos Ayres); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 32 (Chupat), p. 168 (Buenos Ayres), 1878, p. 392 (Central Patagonia); _Sclater, Ibis_, 1878, p. 362; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 594 (Buenos Ayres); _Doring, Exp. al Rio Negro, Zool._ p. 37 (Azul); _Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ viii. p. 87 (Concepcion, Entrerios); _Sharpe, Cat. B._ x. p. 610. +Anthus rufus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 474 (Mendoza, Parana); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1876, p. 158.

_Description._--Above pale sandy buff, mottled with black centres to the feathers; wing- and tail-feathers dark brown, edged with buff, the penultimate tail-feather with a white tip, the outer tail-feather almost entirely white; neck and breast sandy buff, with large triangular black spots; flanks buff, streaked with black; abdomen and under tail-coverts isabelline; bill dusky grey; feet pink: total length 60 inches, wing 29, tail 23. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Paraguay, Argentina, Patagonia, and Chili.

Azara's only reason for calling this bird _La Correndera_ was because he thought it resembled a t.i.t-Lark known by that name in his own country, but of which he merely had a confused recollection. It is therefore to be regretted, I think, that _correndera_ has been adopted as a specific name by naturalists instead of "Cachila," the vernacular name of the bird, familiar to every one in the Argentine country. Azara's Spanish bird was probably _Anthus pratensis_, which closely resembles _A.

correndera_ in general appearance, and has, moreover, as wide a range in the northern as the last-named species has in the southern hemisphere.

In the volume on Birds in the 'Voyage of the Beagle,' it is said that a species of _Anthus_ ranges further south than any other land-bird, being the only land-bird found on Georgia and South Orkney (lat. 61 S.).

In colour and language, possibly also in size, the Cachila is variable.

It is a very common bird, widely and plentifully distributed over the pampas, found alike on marshy and dry grounds, but rare in the region of giant gra.s.ses. While abundant, it is also very evenly dispersed, each bird spending its life on a very circ.u.mscribed plot of earth. Those frequenting marshy or moist grounds are of a yellowish-cream colour, thickly mottled and striped with fuscous and black, and have two narrow parallel pure white marks on the back, very conspicuous when the bird is on the ground. The individuals frequenting high and dry grounds are much paler in hue, appearing almost grey, and do not show the white marks on the back. They also look larger than the birds on marshy lands; but this appearance is probably due to a looser plumage. The most strongly-marked pale and dark-plumaged variations may be found living within a few hundred yards of each other, showing how strictly each bird keeps to its own little "beat"; for this difference in coloration is, no doubt, due entirely to the amount of moisture in the ground they live on.

The Cachilas are resident, living in couples all the year round, the s.e.xes being faithful. Several pairs frequent a small area, and sometimes they unite in a desultory flock; but these gatherings are not frequent.

In the evening, at all seasons, immediately after the sun has set, the Cachilas all rise to a considerable height in the air and fly wildly about, chirping for a few minutes, after which they retire to roost.

When approached they frequently rise up several feet from the ground and flutter in the air, chirping sharply, with breast towards the intruder.

This is a habit also found in Synallaxine species inhabiting the gra.s.sy plains. But, as a rule, the Cachilas are the tamest of feathered creatures, and usually creep reluctantly away on their little pink feet when approached. If the pedestrian is a stranger to their habits they easily delude him into attempting their capture with his hat, so little is their fear of man.

To sing, the Cachila mounts upwards almost vertically, making at intervals a fluttering pause, accompanied with a few hurried notes. When he has thus risen to a great height (but never beyond sight as Azara says) he begins the descent slowly, the wings inclining upwards; and, descending, he pours forth long impressive strains, each ending with a falling inflection or with two or three short throat-notes as the bird pauses fluttering in mid-air, and then renewed successively until, when the singer is within 3 or 4 feet of the earth, without alighting he reascends as before to continue the performance. It is a very charming melody, and heard always on the treeless plains when there is no other bird-music, with the exception of the trilling and gra.s.shopper-like notes of a few Synallaxine species. But in character it is utterly unlike the song of the Sky-Lark with its boundless energy, hurry, and abandon; and yet it is impossible not to think of the Sky-Lark when describing the Cachila, which, in its manners, appearance, and in its habit of soaring to a great height when singing, seems so like a small copy of that bird.

The Cachila rears two broods in the year; the first is hatched about the middle of August, that is, one to three months before the laying-season of other Pa.s.serine species. By antic.i.p.ating the breeding-season their early nests escape the evil of parasitical eggs; but, on the other hand, frosty nights and heavy rains are probably as fatal to as many early broods as the instinct of the _Molothrus bonariensis_, or Cow-bird, is to others at a later period.

The second brood is reared in December, the hottest month, and in that season a large proportion of their nests contain parasitical eggs.

The nest is placed in a slight hollow in the ground, under a tussock of gra.s.s, and is sometimes elaborately made and lined with horsehair and fine gra.s.s, and sometimes with a few materials loosely put together.

During the solst.i.tial heats I have frequently found nests with frail shades, built of sticks and gra.s.s, over them, the short withered gra.s.s affording an insufficient protection from the meridian sun. The eggs are four, elongated, with a dirty white and sometimes a dull bluish ground, thickly spotted with dusky brown and drab. In some eggs the spots are confluent, the whole sh.e.l.l being of a dull brownish-drab colour.

The manners of this species, where I have observed it, are always the same; it lives on the ground on open plains, where the herbage and gra.s.s is short, and never perches on trees. The song varies considerably in different districts.

16. ANTHUS FURCATUS, d'Orb. et Lafr.

(FORKED-TAIL PIPIT.)

+Anthus furcatus+, _d'Orb. Voy._ p. 227 (Patagonia); _Darwin, Zool.

Voy. 'Beagle'_, iii. p. 85 (La Plata); _Sclater, Ibis_, 1878, p.

364; _Doring, Exp. al Rio Negro, Zool._ p. 37 (Azul, Carhue-pampas); _Sharpe, Cat. B._ x. p. 605.

_Description._--Similar to _A. correndera_, but with a smaller bill, shorter and more curved hind claw, less spotted under surface, and different marking of the second outer rectrix, which has a clear and distinct white line along the inner side of the shaft: total length 60 inches, wing 32, tail 24.

_Hab._ Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina.

One of the Pipits procured at Conchitas belongs to this species, if distinct from the former. I think I recollect it as a resident on the pampas, closely resembling the Cachila in flight and language, but much shyer, and usually found concealed under Tulu gra.s.s on dry grounds.

Fam. VI. MNIOTILTIDae, or WOOD-SINGERS.

The Mniotiltidae, or Wood-singers, are a well-known and very characteristic family of the New World, where they occupy the position of our Sylviidae. They number some 130 or 140 species, distributed all over America down to La Plata, but most abundant in the southern portions of North America, where the favourite and beautiful genus _Dendrca_, with about 100 species, plays an important part. In Argentina only four species have as yet been met with.

17. PARULA PITIAYUMI (Vieill.).

(PITIAYUMI WOOD-SINGER.)

+Parula pitiayumi+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 8; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1876, p. 158, 1877, p. 168 (Buenos Ayres); _Salv. Ibis_, 1880, p. 352 (Tuc.u.man); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 594 (Catamarca, Misiones); _Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ viii. p. 87 (Concepcion, Entrerios); _Sharpe, Cat. B._ x. p. 259, pl. xi.

fig. 1. +Sylvicola venusta+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 473 (Parana, Tuc.u.man).

_Description._--Above clear blue; mantle and upper back olive-yellow; central tail-feathers blue, all the others, also the quills, blackish; cheeks and under surface of body bright yellow; lower abdomen and under tail-coverts white; upper mandible black, lower yellow; eye brown: total length 40 inches, wing 205, tail 155.

_Female_ similar, but much paler in colour.

_Hab._ South America.

This is a southern representative of a small group of Wood-warblers, which is extensively diffused in the New World.

The upper plumage of this small bird is mostly cerulean-blue, the breast and belly yellow. Its Guarani name, according to Azara, is "_Pitiayume_," which means little yellow-breast. I have never heard it sing or utter any note beyond a very feeble chirp as it hops about through the foliage in quest of small caterpillars. Its migration extends south to Buenos Ayres, where it is seen in woods and thickets in pairs or singly; but it is a rare bird, and I have been unable to find out anything about its nesting-habits.

18. GEOTHLYPIS VELATA (Vieill.).

(VEILED WOOD-SINGER.)

+Geothlypis velata+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 9; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 594 (Salta); _Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ viii. p. 87 (Concepcion, Entrerios); _Sharpe, Cat. B._ x. p. 363, pl. ix.

fig. 5.