Argentine Ornithology Volume I Part 7

_Description._--Above glossy dark steel-blue; lower back and rump cinnamon-rufous; the upper tail-coverts brown, with grey margins; wings black; tail black, with greenish gloss; crown steel-blue; forehead sandy buff; cheeks and sides of face chestnut, spreading to the sides of the hind neck; chin chestnut; the lower throat steel-blue; fore neck, chest, and sides of body and flanks light ashy brown; centre of breast and abdomen white, tinged with brown; under tail-coverts, also under wing-coverts and axillaries, ashy brown: total length 53 inches, wing 435, tail 205. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ South America.

This species does not breed in Buenos Ayres, and is only seen there in spring, flying south or south-west, and again in much larger numbers on its return journey in autumn. On the Rio Negro, in Patagonia, I did not meet with it, and suppose its summer resort must be south of that locality; and, judging from the immense numbers visible in some seasons, I should think that they must, in their breeding-place in Patagonia, occupy a very extensive area. They do not seem to be as regular in their movements as other Swallows here; some years I have observed them pa.s.sing singly or in small parties during the entire hot season: usually they begin to appear, flying north, in February; but in some years not until after the middle of March. They are not seen pa.s.sing with a rapid flight in close flocks, but straggle about, hawking after flies: first one bird pa.s.sing, then two or three, and a minute or two later half a dozen, and so on for a greater part of the day. So long as the weather continues warm they journey in this leisurely manner; but I have known them to continue pa.s.sing till April, after all the summer migrants had left us, and these late birds flew by with great speed in small close flocks, directly north, as if their flight had been guided by the magnetic needle.

While flying this species continually utters sharp twitterings and grinding and squealing notes of various lengths.

29. TACHYCINETA LEUCORRHOA (Vieill.).

(WHITE-RUMPED SWALLOW.)

+Hirundo leucorrhoa+, _Hudson, P. Z. S._ 1872, pp. 606, 845 (Buenos Ayres); _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 14; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 32 (Chupat), 1878, p. 392 (Central Patagonia); _White, P. Z.

S._ 1882, p. 596 (Corrientes); _Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ viii. p. 89 (Concepcion). +Cotyle leucorrhoea+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 478 (Parana). +Tachycineta leucorrhous+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ x. p. 114.

_Description._--Above glossy dark green; rump white; quills black, washed with green; upper tail-coverts dark green; tail-feathers black with greenish gloss; base of forehead white, extending a little backward over the lores; cheeks and whole under surface white; flanks and sides washed with smoky brown; axillaries and under tail-coverts pale smoky brown; bill and feet black: total length 55 inches, wing 445, tail 20. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.

This is the most abundant and best known of our Swallows; a pretty bird in its glossy coat of deep green, and rump and under surface snowy white; exceedingly restless in its disposition, quick and graceful in its motions; social, quarrelsome, garrulous, with a not unmusical song, beginning with long, soft, tremulous notes, followed by others shorter and more hurried, and sinking to a murmur. They are the last of all our migrants to leave us in autumn, and invariably reappear in small numbers about the houses on every warm day in winter. Probably many individuals in Buenos Ayres remain through the winter in sheltered situations, to scatter over the surrounding country whenever there comes a warm bright day. I once saw three together, skimming over the plains, on one of the coldest days I ever experienced on the pampas, the thermometer having stood at 29 Fahr. that morning.

Further south their migration is more strict; and on the Rio Negro, in Patagonia, from March to August I did not meet with a single individual.

In Buenos Ayres the autumnal migration of the Hirundines begins about the middle of February, and from that date vast numbers of this Swallow are seen travelling north, and, in some seasons, they continue pa.s.sing for over a month. One autumn, in April, several days after the Swallows had all disappeared, flocks of the Common Swallow began again to appear flying north, and for ten days afterwards they continued to pa.s.s in large numbers. They would stoop to dip themselves in a pool where I observed them, and then alight on the reeds and bushes to rest, and appeared quite tired with their journey, rising reluctantly when approached, and some allowing me to stand almost within arm's length of them without stirring. I had never before observed any later or supplementary migration like this; for, as a rule, the causes which in some years delay the departure of birds seems to affect them all alike.

Possibly these late birds come from some remote district, where exceptionally cold weather had r.e.t.a.r.ded breeding-operations.

The White-rumped Swallow sometimes lays in a tree, in the large nest, previously abandoned, of the Lenatero (_Anumbius acuticaudatus_).

Its favourite site is, however, a hole in a wall, sheltered by the overhanging tiles or thatch; for though it does not go much into towns, as Azara has remarked, it is very domestic, and there is not a house on the pampas, however humble it be, but some of these birds are about it, sportively skimming above the roof, or curiously peering under the eaves, and incessantly uttering their gurgling happy notes.

For a period of a month to six weeks before building begins they seem to be holding an incessant dispute, reminding one in their scolding tones of a colony of contentious English House-Sparrows, only the Swallow has a softer, more varied voice, and frequently, even when hotly quarrelling, he pauses to warble out his pretty little song, with its sound like running water. However many eligible c.h.i.n.ks and holes there may be, the contention is always just as great amongst them, and is doubtless referable to opposing claims to the best places. The excited twittering, the incessant striving of two birds to alight on the same square inch of wall, the perpetual chases they lead each other round and round the house, always ending exactly where they began, tell of clashing interests and of great unreasonableness on the part of some amongst them. By-and-by the quarrel a.s.sumes a more serious aspect; friends and neighbours have apparently intervened in vain; all the arguments of which Swallows are capable have been exhausted, and, a compromise of claims being more impossible than ever, fighting begins.

Most vindictively do the little things clutch each other and fall to the earth twenty times an hour, where they often remain struggling for a long time, heedless of the screams of alarm their fellows set up above them; for often, while they thus lie on the ground punishing each other, they fall an easy prey to some wily p.u.s.s.y who has made herself acquainted with their habits.

When these feuds are finally settled, they address themselves diligently to the great work and build a rather big nest. They are not neat or skilful workers, but merely stuff a great quant.i.ty of straw and other light materials into the breeding-hole, and line the nest with feathers and horsehair. On this soft but disorderly bed the female lays from five to seven pure white eggs.

All those species that are liable at any time to become the victims of raptorial birds are very much beholden to this Swallow, as he is the most vigilant sentinel they possess. When the hurrying Falcon is still far off, and the other birds unsuspicious of his approach, the Swallows suddenly rush up into the sky with a wild rapid flight to announce the evil tidings with distracted screams. The alarm spreads swift as light through the feathered tribes, which, on all sides, are in terrified commotion, crouching in the gra.s.s, plunging into thickets, or mounting upwards to escape by flight. I have often wondered at this, since this swift-winged and quick-doubling little bird is the least likely to fall a prey himself.

They possess another habit very grateful to the mind of every early riser. At the first indication of dawn, and before any other wild bird has broken the profound silence of night, mult.i.tudes of this Swallow, as if at the signal of a leader, begin their singing and twittering, at the same time mounting upwards into the quiet dusky sky. Their notes at this hour differ from the hurried twittering uttered during the day, being softer and more prolonged, and, sounding far up in the sky from so many throats, the concert has a very charming effect, and seems in harmony with the shadowy morning twilight.

30. ATTICORA CYANOLEUCA (Vieill.).

(BANK-SWALLOW.)

+Atticora cyanoleuca+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 479; _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 14; _Hudson, P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 844 (Buenos Ayres); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1876, p. 158 (Buenos Ayres), 1877, p. 32 (Chupat), p. 170 (Buenos Ayres), 1878, p. 392 (Central Patagonia); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 596 (Catamarca); _Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ viii. p. 90 (Concepcion, Bahia Blanca); _Sharpe, Cat. B._ x. p. 186.

_Description._--Above dark glossy blue; quills and tail-feathers black; cheeks and under surface of body pure white, the sides of the neck blue, descending in a half-crescent on the sides of the chest; sides of body and flanks brown; under tail-coverts black; bill and feet black: total length 47 inches, wing 405, tail 22. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Central and South America.

This diminutive dark-plumaged species is the smallest of our Hirundines.

In Buenos Ayres they appear early in September, arriving before the Martins, but preceded by the Common Swallow. They are bank-birds, breeding in forsaken holes and burrows, for they never bore into the earth themselves, and are consequently not much seen about the habitations of man. They sometimes find their breeding-holes in the banks of streams, or, in cultivated districts, in the sides of ditches, and even down in wells. But if in such sites alone fit receptacles for their eggs were met with, the species, instead of one of the commonest, would be rare indeed with us; for on the level pampas most of the water-courses have marshy borders, or at most but low and gently sloping banks. But the burrowing habits of two other animals--the Vizcacha (_Lagostomus trichodactylus_), the common large rodent of the pampas, and the curious little bird called Minera (_Geositta cunicularia_)--have everywhere afforded the Swallows abundance of breeding-places on the plains, even where there are no streams or other irregularities in the smooth surface of the earth.

The Minera bores its hole in the sides of the Vizcacha's great burrow, and in this burrow within a burrow the Swallow lays its eggs and rears its young, and is the guest of the Vizcacha, and as much dependent on it as the House-Wren and the Domestic Swallow on man; so that in spring, when this species returns to the plains, it is in the villages of the Vizcachas that we see them. There they live and spend the day, sporting about the burrows, just as the Common Swallow does about our houses; and to a stranger on the pampas one of these villages, with its incongruous bird and mammalian inhabitants, must seem a very curious sight in the evening. Before sunset the old male Vizcachas come forth to sit gravely at the mouths of their great burrows. One or two couples of Mineras, their little brown bird-tenants, are always seen running about on the bare ground round the holes, resting at intervals with their tails slowly moving up and down, and occasionally trilling-out their shrill laughter-like cry. Often a pair of Burrowing-Owls also live in the village, occupying one of the lesser disused burrows; and round them all flit half a dozen little Swallows, like twilight-moths with long black wings. It is never quite a happy family, however, for the Owls always hiss and snap at a Vizcacha if he comes too near; while the little Swallows never become reconciled to the Owls, but perpetually flutter about them, protesting against their presence with long complaining notes.

The nest, made of dry gra.s.s lined with feathers, is placed at the extremity of the long, straight, cylindrical burrow, and contains five or six white pointed eggs. I have never seen these Swallows fighting with the Minera to obtain possession of the burrows, for this industrious little bird makes itself a fresh one every spring, so that there are always houses enough for the Swallows. After the young have flown, they sit huddled together on a weed or thistle-top, and the parents continue to feed them for many days.

As in size and brightness of plumage, so in language is the Bank-Swallow inferior to other species, its only song being a single, weak, trilling note, much prolonged, which the bird repeats with great frequency when on the wing. Its voice has ever a mournful, monotonous sound, and even when it is greatly excited and alarmed, as at the approach of a fox or hawk, its notes are neither loud nor shrill. When flying they glide along close to the earth, and frequently alight on the ground to rest, which is contrary to the custom of other Swallows. Like other species of this family, they possess the habit of gliding to and fro before a traveller's horse, to catch the small twilight-moths driven up from the gra.s.s. A person riding on the pampas usually has a number of Swallows flying round him, and I have often thought that more than a hundred were before my horse at one time; but, from the rapidity of their motions, it is impossible to count them. I have frequently noticed individuals of the four most common species following me together; but after sunset, and when the other species have long forsaken the open gra.s.sy plain for the shelter of trees and houses, the diminutive Bank-Swallow continues to keep the traveller company. At such a time, as they glide about in the dusk of evening, conversing together in low tremulous tones, they have a peculiarly sorrowful appearance, seeming like homeless little wanderers over the great level plains.

When the season of migration approaches they begin to congregate in parties not very large, though sometimes as many as one or two hundred individuals are seen together; these companies spend much of their time perched close together on weeds, low trees, fences, or other slightly elevated situations, and pay little heed to a person approaching, but seem preoccupied or preyed upon by some trouble that has no visible cause.

The time immediately preceding the departure of the Swallows is indeed a season of very deep interest to the observer of nature. The birds in many cases seem to forget the attachment of the s.e.xes and their songs and aerial recreations; they already begin to feel the premonitions of that marvellous instinct that urges them hence: not yet an irresistible impulse, it is a vague sense of disquiet; but its influence is manifest in their language and gestures, their wild manner of flight, and their listless intervals.

The little Bank-Swallow disappears immediately after the Martins. Many stragglers continue to be seen after the departure of the main body; but before the middle of March not one remains, the migration of this species being very regular.

31. ATTICORA FUCATA (Temm.).

(BROWN MARTIN.)

+Cotyle fucata+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 478 (Mendoza); _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 14; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 596 (Corrientes), 1883, p. 37 (Cordova). +Atticora fucata+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ x. p. 188.

_Description._--Above brown; primary-coverts and quills blackish brown; tail-feathers dark brown; crown of head deep rufous, becoming clearer on the nape; cheeks, throat, and breast pale tawny; sides of body brown, tinged with rufous; centre of breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts white; thighs, under wing-coverts, and axillaries brown: total length 46 inches, wing 415, tail 20. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Guiana, Brazil, and Northern Argentina.

This Swallow is common near Mendoza, according to Prof. Burmeister.

White obtained it in May 1881 at Santo Tome, Corrientes, and in 1882 at Cosquin near Cordova. At Cosquin the first individual was seen on July 20th, but towards the end of August large numbers were observed, mostly skimming over the river.

32. STELGIDOPTERYX RUFICOLLIS (Vieill.).

(RED-NECKED SWALLOW.)

+Stelgidopteryx ruficollis+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ x. p. 208. +Cotile ruficollis+, _Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ viii. p. 90.

_Description._--Above brown, head darker, rump paler; wings and tail blackish brown, coverts edged with pale brown, external secondaries margined with whitish; beneath pale ashy brown; throat rufous; middle of belly pale yellowish; crissum white, tipped with black: total length 50 inches, wing 43, tail 20. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ South America.

Mr. Barrows tells us that this species is abundant in Entrerios throughout the summer, arriving from the north early in August, and is said to nest in holes in banks.

Fam. IX. TANAGRIDae, or TANAGERS.

The brilliant family of Tanagers, one of the most characteristic groups of the American avifauna, contains altogether nearly 400 species, of which the greater number are restricted to the forest-clad districts of Central and South America between the tropics. South of the Tropic of Cancer the number of species met with falls off very considerably, so that in the Argentine Republic only fourteen members of the family have as yet been recognized. This number will, however, be probably increased when the less-known wooded districts of northern and eastern Argentina have been more fully explored.

The fourteen species of Argentine Tanagers belong to ten different genera, mostly of wide distribution. But to this rule one genus (_Stephanophorus_) is an exception, being only found in Southern Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Northern La Plata.