Argentine Ornithology Volume Ii Part 9

_Description._--Above black; rump white, with a small scarlet patch on each side: beneath black, throat white; crissum scarlet; bill yellow, with a black blotch at the end of the upper mandible; feet brown: whole length 220 inches, wing 95, tail 65. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Guiana, Amazonia, Brazil, Paraguay, and N. Argentina.

White met with this Toucan among the lofty forest trees at Campo Colorado, near Oran, where it was found in flocks. In Misiones it was more abundant, and was said to commit great havoc among the orange-groves.

Order V. PSITTACI.

Fam. XXIX. PSITTACIDae, or PARROTS.

Dr. Finsch's history of the Parrot tribe, published in 1867, included accounts of about 350 species, to which at least 50 more have been added during these last twenty years, so that upwards of 400 Parrots are now known to science. Of these, about 150 belong to the New World, mostly to the intertropical portion, though Parrots are found as far north as the U.S., and as far south as Chili and Patagonia.

In the Argentine Republic the presence of ten species of Psittacidae has been recorded, but only two of these are found in the vicinity of Buenos Ayres, the remaining eight being restricted to the more northern and western portions of the country.

276. CONURUS PATAGONUS (Vieill).

(PATAGONIAN PARROT.)

+Conurus patagonus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 441; _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 111; _Scl. P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 549 (Rio Negro), et 1873, p. 761; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 186 (Buenos Ayres), et 1878, p. 396 (Chupat); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 620 (Catamarca); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 28 (Bahia Blanca). +Conurus patachonicus+, _Darwin, Zool. Beagle_, iii. p. 113 (Bahia Blanca).

_Description._--Above dark olive-green, forehead darker; wings edged with bluish, lower back yellow: beneath olive-green, darker on throat; band across the neck whitish; belly yellow, with a large patch in the middle and the thighs red: whole length 180 inches, wing 92, tail 105. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Argentina and Patagonia.

This Parrot, called in La Plata the Bank- or Burrowing-Parrot, from its nesting-habits, is the only member of its order found so far south as Patagonia. In habits it differs somewhat from most of its congeners, and it may be regarded, I think, as one of those species which are dying out--possibly owing to the altered conditions resulting from the settlement of the country by Europeans. It was formerly abundant on the southern pampas of La Plata, and being partially migratory its flocks ranged in winter to Buenos Ayres, and even as far north as the Parana river. When, as a child, I lived near the capital city (Buenos Ayres), I remember that I always looked forward with the greatest delight to the appearance of these noisy dark-green winter visitors. Now they are rarely seen within a hundred miles of Buenos Ayres; and I have been informed by old gauchos that half a century before my time they invariably appeared in immense flocks in winter, and have since gradually diminished in numbers, until now in that district the Bank-Parrot is almost a thing of the past. Two or three hundred miles south of Buenos Ayres city they are still to be met with in rather large flocks, and have a few ancient breeding-places, to which they cling very tenaciously. Where there are trees or bushes on their feeding-ground they perch on them; they also gather the berries of the _Empetrum rubrum_ and other fruits from the bushes; but they feed princ.i.p.ally on the ground, and, while the flock feeds, one bird is invariably perched on a stalk or other elevation to act as sentinel. They are partial to the seeds of the giant thistle (_Carduus mariana_), and the wild pumpkin, and to get at the latter they bite the hard dry sh.e.l.l into pieces with their powerful beaks. When a horseman appears in the distance they rise in a compact flock, with loud harsh screams, and hover above him, within a very few yards of his head, their combined dissonant voices producing an uproar which is only equalled in that pandemonium of noises, the Parrot-house in the Zoological Gardens of London. They are extremely social, so much so that their flocks do not break up in the breeding-season; and their burrows, which they excavate in a perpendicular cliff or high bank, are placed close together; so that when the gauchos take the young birds--esteemed a great delicacy--the person who ventures down by means of a rope attached to his waist is able to rifle a whole colony. The burrow is three to five feet deep, and four white eggs are deposited on a slight nest at the extremity. I have only tasted the old birds, and found their flesh very bitter, scarcely palatable.

The natives say that this species cannot be taught to speak; and it is certain that the few individuals I have seen tame were unable to articulate.

Doubtless these Parrots were originally stray colonists from the tropics, although now resident in so cold a country as Patagonia. When viewed closely, one would also imagine that they must at one time have been brilliant-plumaged birds; but either natural selection, or the direct effect of a bleak climate, has given a sombre shade to their colours--green, blue, yellow, and crimson; and when seen flying at a distance, or in cloudy weather, they look as dark as crows.

277. CONURUS ACUTICAUDATUS (Vieill.).

(SHARP-TAILED PARROT.)

+Conurus acuticaudatus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 111; _White, P.

Z. S._ 1882, p. 621 (Catamarca). +Conurus fugax+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 441. +Conurus glaucifrons+ _Leybold, Leopoldina_, Heft viii. p. 52 (1873).

_Description._--Above and beneath green; top of head and cheeks bluish; inner margins of wing-feathers yellowish grey; inner webs of tail-feathers at their bases red; upper mandible pale whitish, lower black: whole length 130 inches, wing 75, tail 70. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Bolivia, Paraguay, and N. Argentina.

White obtained specimens of this Parrot near Andalgala in Catamarca in September 1880. He tells us that it is not very abundant in that district, and flies very swiftly in flocks of seven or eight, screeching continually when on the wing.

278. CONURUS MITRATUS, Tsch.

(RED-HEADED PARROT.)

+Conurus mitratus+, _Tsch. Faun. Per., Av._ p. 272, t. xxvi. f. 2; _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 112. +Conurus hilaris+, _Burm.

La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 442 (Tuc.u.man); _id. Wiegm. Arch._ 1879, pt. i. p. 100; _id. P. Z. S._ 1878, p. 75.

_Description._--Bright green; front and sides of head red: beneath rather paler; under wing-coverts green; lower surface of tail yellowish; in some specimens with irregular patches of red on the neck and breast; bill pale; feet brown: whole length 140 inches, wing 80, tail 70.

_Hab._ Peru, Bolivia, and Northern Argentina.

Dr. Burmeister met with this Parrot near Tuc.u.man, where he found it "very common, especially in winter." At first he made a new species of it, but afterwards recognized its ident.i.ty with _Conurus mitratus_ of Tschudi.

Dr. Burmeister has kindly sent two specimens of this bird to Sclater, for his collection. Sclater has also examples of the same species procured by Schulz near Cordova, and in Bolivia by Bridges.

279. CONURUS MOLINae, Ma.s.s. et Souanc.

(MOLINA'S PARROT.)

[Plate XIV.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: CONURUS MOLINae.]

+Conurus molinae+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 112; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 621 (Salta).

_Description._--Above green; crown brown; nape bluish; cheeks green; wings edged with blue; tail coppery red: beneath green, breast and sides of neck whity brown, with dark cross bars; middle of belly dull red: whole length 95 inches, wing 50, tail 53. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Bolivia, S. Brazil, and N. Argentina.

White met with this Parrot in the dense forests of Campo Colorado near Oran, where it is found in flocks of about twenty, "their flight being limited, for the most part, to the clear aisles beneath the branches."

White's specimen in Sclater's collection, from which our figure (Plate XIV.) is taken, agrees with others of the species obtained by Natterer in Mato Grosso.

280. BOLBORHYNCHUS MONACHUS (Bodd.).

(GREEN PARRAKEET.)

+Conurus murinus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 441; _Darwin, Zool.

Beagle_, iii. p. 112 (Parana). +Bolborhynchus monachus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 113; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 186 (Buenos Ayres); _Gibson, Ibis_, 1880, p. 3 (Buenos Ayres); _White, P. Z.

S._ 1882, p. 621 (Catamarca, Santiago del Estero); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 28 (Entrerios); _Burm. P. Z. S._ 1878, p. 77.

_Description._--Green; front grey, with paler margins to the feathers; wings blackish, with slight bluish edgings: beneath grey, with lighter margins to the breast-feathers; under wing-coverts, flanks, and crissum pale green; bill whitish: whole length 110 inches, wing 55, tail 53. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina.

The Common Green Parrakeet, called _Cotorra_ or _Cat.i.ta_ in the vernacular, is a well-known resident species in the Argentine Republic.

It is a lively restless bird, shrill-voiced, and exceedingly vociferous, living and breeding in large communities, and though it cannot learn to speak so distinctly as some of the larger Parrots, it is impossible to observe its habits without being convinced that it shares in the intelligence of the highly-favoured order to which it belongs.

In Buenos Ayres it was formerly very much more numerous than it is now; but it is exceedingly tenacious of its breeding-places, and there are some few favoured localities where it still exists in large colonies, in spite of the cruel persecution all birds easily killed are subjected to in a country where laws relating to such matters are little regarded, and where the agricultural population is chiefly Italian. At Mr.