Chapter V: Introduction (4)

_Description._--Above dull olive-green, striped with blackish; wings
silky olive-green, the inner webs of the feathers black; edge of
wings yellow; tail-feathers dull olive-green; beneath, throat and
breast grey; belly buff; beak bright red; feet pinkish horn-colour:
total length 8·8 inches, wing 3·7, tail 3·8. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ South Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.

In this Finch the plumage is alike in both sexes. Above it is dusky olive-green, beneath grey; the beak is of a fine bright red. In Argentina this bird is most common in the littoral forests along the Plata, but ranges as far south as the Rio Negro in Patagonia. It does not migrate, nor associates in flocks; but the sexes are faithful, and the male and female are invariably together, and appear to be very fond of each other's society. They have a loud, sharp alarm chirp or cry, which bursts from the bird with the startling suddenness of a sneeze from a human being; also a confused unmelodious song, which always reminds me, in its hurry, vehemence, and peculiar sound, of the gobbling of a turkey-cock. They are not shy, but when approached sit jerking their tails about, and uttering loud chirps as if greatly excited. The flight is very curious; the bird springs up with great suddenness, and with tail erect, and the long legs dangling down like a Rail's, proceeds by a series of irregular jerks, violently shutting and opening its wings. They breed on the ground under the grass, and conceal their nest so well that I doubt whether the parasitical _Molothrus_ ever finds it. I have, at all events, never seen them followed by the young of _Molothrus_ demanding food.

As a rule, small seed-eating birds are beneficially affected by the presence of man; thus our common _Zonotrichia_ and other sparrows and finches have become excessively numerous in the most thickly-settled districts. With the Red-billed Finch, however, just the contrary has happened; and since I have known this species it has disappeared from many localities where it was once quite common. Azara's name for this species, _Habia de bañado_, signifies that it is a marsh bird; but though now found chiefly in marshy situations, it was once common enough over the entire pampas region, before the great plains were settled on by Europeans. The bird is very badly protected by nature against raptorial species, owing to its very conspicuous red beak, its habit of perching on the summit of tall plants and other elevated positions, its loud impetuous voice, which invites attention, and the weak eccentric flight, which challenges pursuit. It is essential to its safety that it should have, in the open country it frequents, a dense grass cover into which it can plunge on the slightest alarm. Where cattle are introduced, the original pampas-grass, which afforded the suitable conditions, disappears, giving place to the soft, perishable grasses, clovers, and thistles of Europe. Where these changes take place, the bird cannot escape from its enemies and quickly disappears; while many Dendrocolaptine species inhabiting the same situations are saved by their inconspicuous protective colouring, sharp wedge-like bodies, and swift mouse-like motions on the ground. In marshy places on the pampas, abounding with long aquatic grasses and reed-beds, the Red-bill still maintains its existence, but from its old habitat on the open grassy plains, where it was once the dominant Finch, it has utterly vanished.

84. EMBERNAGRA OLIVASCENS (d'Orb. et Lafr.).

(OLIVE GROUND-FINCH.)

+Embernagra olivascens+, _d'Orb. Voy., Ois._ p. 285; _Burm. La-Plata
Reise_, ii. p. 485 (Mendoza); _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 32;
_Salvin, Ibis_, 1880, p. 355; _Döring, Exp. al Rio Negro, Zool._
p. 40 (R. Colorado).

_Description._--Similar to _Embernagra platensis_, but the back
unstriped, and the olive hue somewhat purer; also the abdomen of a
paler buff: total length 8·1 inches, wing 3·7, tail 4·0. _Female_
similar.

_Hab._ Bolivia, Western Argentina, and Patagonia.

This species, which was met with by Dr. Burmeister near Mendoza, was found by Dr. Döring as far south as the Rio Colorado, on the pampas.

85. EMBERIZOIDES SPHENURUS (Vieill.).

(WEDGE-TAILED GROUND-FINCH.)

+Embernagra macroura+, _d'Orb. Voy., Ois._ p. 285. +Emberizoides
macrurus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 485 (Paraná).
+Emberizoides sphenurus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 33.

_Description._--Above yellowish brown, striped with black; shoulders
edged with yellow; wing-feathers blackish, edged with olive-green;
tail-feathers blackish, edged with pale brown; beneath pale
ochraceous brown, white on the throat and middle of the belly;
bill and feet pale horn-colour: whole length 8·0 inches, wing 3·1,
tail 4·0.

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

Burmeister met with this species near Paraná and in other parts of Northern Argentina.

86. HÆMOPHILA WHITII (Sharpe).

(WHITE'S GROUND-FINCH.)

+Zonotrichia whitii+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ xiii. p. 608, pl. xiii.
+Zonotrichia strigiceps+, _White, P. Z. S._ 1883, p. 38
(Cordova).

_Description._--Above, head and neck grey, variegated with dark
chestnut; back yellowish brown with black stripes; wings and tail
blackish, the feathers edged with pale brown; beneath, throat and
belly white, breast pale grey; sides yellowish brown; bill dark
horn-colour, lower mandible whitish; feet light horn-colour: whole
length 6·0 inches, wing 2·5, tail 2·8.

_Hab._ Northern Argentina.

This species has been based by Mr. Sharpe on a specimen, obtained by White near Cordova, which was wrongly determined as _Zonotrichia strigiceps_--a species that it somewhat resembles in its upper plumage.

87. CHRYSOMITRIS ICTERICA (Licht.).

(BLACK-HEADED SISKIN.)

+Chrysomitris barbata+, _Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S._ 1868, p. 140 (Buenos
Ayres); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 172 (Buenos Ayres); _White, P.
Z. S._ 1882, p. 600 (Catamarca, Misiones); _Döring, Exp. al Rio
Negro, Zool._ p. 40 (R. Sauce, R. Colorado, R. Negro); _Barrows,
Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ viii. p. 132 (Concepcion). +Chrysomitris
magellanica+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 489; _Gibson, Ibis_,
1880, p. 30 (Buenos Ayres); _Salvin, Ibis_, 1880, p. 355 (Salta).
+Chrysomitris icterica+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ xii. p. 217.

_Description._--Above light olive-green; lesser wing-coverts same as
the back; wings black, a broad bright yellow band across the base
of the feathers; rump yellow; upper tail-coverts olive-green;
tail-feathers yellow at the base and black at the ends; head all
round and throat velvety black; beneath and under wing-coverts
bright yellow: total length 5·0 inches, wing 3·0, tail 1·8. _Female_
without the black on the head, otherwise similar to the male, but
less bright.

_Hab._ Brazil and Argentina.

This beautiful little golden-plumaged Finch, the male distinguished from his consort by a brighter yellow colour and a black head, is extremely common throughout the entire length of the Argentine country from Brazil to Patagonia. In the Buenos-Ayrean district it probably has a partial migration, as small flocks are seen to arrive in spring; but further south, in Patagonia, it appears to be strictly resident. In settled districts they are always more abundant than in the woods, and they have a special predilection for poplar groves, and always prefer a poplar to build in. They go in small flocks, seldom more than about a dozen birds together, have a rapid, undulating flight, feed chiefly on the ground like most Finches, and also frequently alight in the seeding-time on plants like the lettuce and _Sonchus asper_ (a common weed) and, clinging to the stem, dexterously pick off the seed, scattering the down about them in a little cloud. They are very tuneful, restless, quick in their motions, apparently always in a light-hearted merry mood. Being much admired for their song, they are often kept in cages; and certainly, for cheerfulness and constancy in singing, they take the foremost place amongst the Finches; but there is little expression in the song, which is composed of a variety of short twittering notes, uttered with great rapidity, as the bird sits perched on a twig or undulates from tree to tree. Usually the notes flow in a continuous stream, but occasionally the bird sings in a different manner, making a pause of two or three seconds of silence after every eight or ten short notes. When the female is on the nest the male sometimes perches near her amongst the leaves and sings _sotto voce_, apparently for her pleasure only, the notes being so low that, at a distance of ten yards, they can scarcely be heard.

The nest is usually placed between the angle formed by a small branch and the bole of the tree, and is a deep, well-made structure composed of many materials, and lined with horsehair, down, or feathers. The eggs are five, very small for the bird, pure white, and so frail that it is not easy to take them from the nest without breaking them.

While engaged in building, the birds constantly utter a low, soft, trilling note; and when the nest is approached they break out into long, somewhat reedy notes, resembling those of the Canary, expressive of alarm or curiosity.

88. CHRYSOMITRIS ATRATA (d'Orb. et Lafr.).

(HALF-BLACK SISKIN.)

+Carduelis atratus+, _d'Orb. Voy., Ois._ p. 364, t. 48. fig. 2.
+Chrysomitris atrata+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 490
(Mendoza); _Sharpe, Cat. B._ xii. p. 212.

_Description._--Black; concealed shoulder-spot, broad band on wing,
basal half of tail-feathers, belly, and under tail-coverts bright
yellow; bill and feet horn-colour: whole length 5·4 inches, wing
2·9, tail 1·8.

_Hab._ Bolivia and N.W. Argentina.

Dr. Burmeister obtained two examples of this species in the Sierra of Uspallata near Mendoza.

89. SYCALIS PELZELNI, Scl.

(YELLOW HOUSE-SPARROW.)

+Sycalis pelzelni+, _Scl. Ibis_, 1872, p. 42; _Scl. et Salv.
Nomencl._ p. 34; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 172 (Buenos Ayres).

_Description._--Above yellowish olive-green, the back sparsely
striped with blackish; wing- and tail-feathers black, edged with
yellow; forehead bright orange, the rest of the head like the back;
below bright yellow; under surfaces of wings and tail also yellow:
total length 5·4 inches, wing 2·7, tail 2·2. _Female_ dull brownish
grey mottled with blackish above; under surface whitish grey,
striped with dusky brown on the breast; wing- and tail-feathers
edged with yellow.

_Hab._ S. Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.

The Yellow "House-Sparrow," as this species is called, is the town-bird of Buenos Ayres, but does not multiply greatly, nor is he familiar with man, like his rough, sooty-plumaged, far-away London relation.

The forehead of the male is bright orange, the prevailing colour of the entire plumage yellow, clouded with other hues. The female is grey, marked with pale fuscous, and is less in size than her mate. They remain with us all the year and live in pairs, the sexes in this species being faithful. Sometimes they are seen associating in small flocks, but I am inclined to believe that only the young unmated birds are gregarious. In 1867-8, during the cholera epidemic in Buenos Ayres, the Sparrows all disappeared from the town, and I was told by the manager of a large steam flour-mill in the town that the birds had not gone away, but had died. They were found dead all about the mill where they had been very abundant. My informant was a careful observer, and I have no doubt that he was correct in what he told me.

In spring and summer the male sings frequently with great energy, but without much melody. After a hurried prelude of sharp chirps and trills, he pours out a continuous stream of sound, composed of innumerable brief notes, high and shrill as those of a bat, wounding the ear with their excessive sharpness, and emitted so rapidly that the whole song is more like that of a cicada than of a bird. This piercing torrent of sound is broken at intervals by a long grave note, or half a dozen short rapid notes in a lower key, which come as an agreeable relief.

In towns they build in walls, like the English Sparrow; in country places they always select the domed nest of some Dendrocolaptine species to breed in. Possibly in some districts where I have not been, this Sparrow selects other breeding-sites; my experience is that outside of a town it never lays anywhere but in some domed nest, and at home I frequently put up boxes for them in the trees, but they would not notice them, though the Wrens and Swallows were glad to have them. Sometimes they make choice of the large fabric of the _Anumbius acuticaudatus_, called Leñatero in the vernacular; but their claim to this nest (even when the Leñateros are out of it) is frequently disputed by other species which possess the same habit as this Sparrow, but are more powerful than he. Their favourite breeding-place is, however, the solid earthen structure of the Oven-bird; and it is wonderful to see how persistently and systematically they labour to drive out the lawful owners--birds so much larger and more powerful than themselves. Early in spring, and before the advent of the Tree-Martins, the pair of Sparrows begin haunting the neighbourhood of the oven they have elected to take possession of, usually one pretty high up in a tree. As the season advances their desire towards it increases, and they take up their position on the very tree it is in; and finally a particular branch near the oven, commanding a good view of the entrance, is chosen for a permanent resting-place. Here they spend a great portion of their time in song, twitterings, and loving dalliance, and, if attentively observed, they are seen with eyes ever fixed on the coveted abode. As the need for a receptacle for the eggs becomes more urgent they grow bolder, and in the absence of the owners flit about the oven, alight on it, and even enter it. The Oven-bird appears to drive them off with screams of indignation, but the moment he retires they are about it again, and, even when it contains eggs or young birds, begin impudently carrying in feathers, straws, and other materials for a nest, as if they were already in undisputed possession. At this stage the Tree-Martins (_Progne tapera_) perhaps appear to complicate matters; and even if these last comers do not succeed in ousting the Oven-birds, they are sure to seize the oven when it becomes vacant, and the Sparrows, in spite of their earlier claim, are left out in the cold. But they do not take their defeat quietly, or, rather, they do not know when they are beaten, but still remain to harrass their fellow-pirates, just as they did the Oven-birds before, bringing straws and feathers in their beaks, and when forced to drop these materials and chased from the neighbourhood with great noise and fury by the Tree-Martins, it is only to return undaunted in a few minutes, bringing more straws and feathers.

This Sparrow makes a rather large nest, neatly lined with horsehair, and lays five eggs, long, pointed, the entire surface thickly marked with deep chocolate-brown.

In rural districts this species is comparatively rare, not more than one or two couples being seen about each habitation; and I scarcely think it would be too much to say that there are four or five thousand Chingolos for every individual Yellow Sparrow. Yet it is a hardy little bird, well able to hold its own, subsists on the same kind of food and lays as many eggs as the _Zonotrichia_; and it possesses, moreover, a great advantage over the dominant species in placing its nest out of the reach of the parasitical _Molothrus_, the destroyer of about fifty per cent. of the Chingolo's eggs. I can only attribute the great disparity in the numbers of the two species to the fact that the Yellow House-Sparrow will breed only (out of towns) in nests not easily taken, and to the stubborn pertinacity which leads it to waste the season in these vain efforts, while the other species is rearing its brood. This is a blunder of instinct comparable to that of the Minera (_Geositta cunicularia_), mentioned by Darwin in the 'Voyage of a Naturalist,' where the bird made its hole in a mud wall a few inches wide, and on coming out on the other side simply went back and made another hole, and then another, unable to understand that the wall had not the requisite width.

In such a case as the Yellow House-Sparrow presents, in which the colour of the sexes differs, the female being without any of the brighter hues found in the male, and which makes an elaborate nest and lays deeply-coloured eggs, it is impossible not to believe that the bird originally built in exposed situations, and subsequently--perhaps in very recent times--acquired the habit of breeding in dark holes. The frequent destruction of the exposed nest, and an abundance of vacant domed nests, into which some individuals occasionally penetrated to breed, would lead to the acquisition of such a nesting-habit; for the birds inheriting it would have an advantage and be preserved, while those persisting in the old habit of building exposed nests would perish. Domed nests made by Dendrocolaptine birds are very abundant even now, and it is probable that, before the country became settled by Europeans, they were very much more numerous. Darwin, speaking of the Oven-bird's habit of always placing its oven in the most conspicuous and (to man) accessible places, predicts, and truly I believe, that this habit will eventually cause the extinction of the species; for when the country becomes more thickly settled, the bird-nesting boys will destroy all the ovens. Probably when the Oven-birds were more abundant the Sparrows could always find vacant ovens to breed in, until a habit of breeding almost exclusively in these safe and convenient bird-built houses was acquired; and the present seemingly stupid persistence of the birds in struggling to get possession of those already occupied by stronger species, only shows that the habit or instinct has not been modified to suit a change in the conditions--_i. e._ a diminishing number of ovens to breed in, with, perhaps, the increase of other stronger species possessing the same habit. But while the instinct thus survives too strongly in the country birds, many individuals have taken to a town life, and acquired the new habit of breeding in holes in brick walls. Probably this race of town birds will eventually colonize the rural districts, and usurp the place of the country birds, which will then be placed at a disadvantage.

90. SYCALIS LUTEA (d'Orb. et Lafr.).

(YELLOW SEED-FINCH.)

+Sycalis chloropis+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 489 (Mendoza and
Catamarca), +Sycalis lutea+, _Scl. Ibis_, 1872, p. 46, pl. ii.
fig. 2.

_Description._--Dark yellow; rump and body below brighter; wings
and tail brownish black, edged with yellow; under wing-coverts pale
yellow; inner margins of wing-feathers pale brown: whole length 5·5
inches, wing 3·2, tail 2·1. _Female_ similar, but duller and more
brownish.

_Hab._ Andes of Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina.

Prof. Burmeister obtained examples of this species near Mendoza. In my revision of the genus published in 1872, I referred the specimens (upon some of which Prof. Burmeister based his species _S. chloropis_) to _S. uropygialis_. I now find that this was an error, and that they really belong to _S. lutea_.--P. L. S.

91. SYCALIS LUTEOLA (Sparrm.).

(MISTO SEED-FINCH.)

+Sycalis luteola+, _Scl. Ibis_, 1872, p. 44; _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._
p. 85; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 172 (Buenos Ayres), et 1878, p.
394 (Centr. Pat.); _Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ viii. p. 132
(Entrerios). +Sycalis luteiventris+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii.
p. 489.

_Description._--Above light olive-green, marked with dusky stripes;
wing-feathers blackish, with pale brownish edges; tail-feathers the
same; beneath, throat and chest dusky buff, lower breast and belly
yellow; bill and feet horn-colour; total length 5·0 inches, wing
2·6, tail 2·0. _Female_ similar, but not so bright.

_Hab._ S. America, from Colombia to Chili.

This is a slender, graceful bird, less than the Canary in size, the whole upper plumage yellowish olive, with dun markings, the lower surface of a dull yellow. The female is a little smaller than the male, and her colours are somewhat dimmer.

This species is resident and gregarious in the Argentine Republic, and in autumn frequently congregates in flocks of several thousands. They are not so universally distributed as the Chingolo, and are not wood-birds, but frequent open plains abounding in thistles and other coarse herbage, which affords them shelter. In cultivated districts, where their food is most abundant, they are excessively numerous, and, after the harvest has been gathered, frequent the fields in immense flocks. While feeding, the flocks scatter over a large area of ground, being broken up into small companies of a dozen or more birds, and at such times are so intent on their food that a person can walk about amongst them without disturbing them. They take flight very suddenly, bursting into a thousand chirping, scolding notes, pursue each other through the air, and, after wheeling about the field for a minute or two, suddenly drop down into the grass again and are silent as before.

In August they begin to sing, here and there an individual being heard in the fields; but when the weather grows warmer they repair to the plantations in vast numbers, and, sitting on the branches, sing in a concert of innumerable voices, which produces a great volume of confused sound, and which often continues for hours at a time without intermission.

By-and-by these pleasant choirs break up, the birds all scattering over the plains and fields to woo and build, and it is then first discovered that the male has a peculiar and very sweet song. Apart from his fellows, he acquires a different manner of singing, soaring up from his stand on the summit of a bush or stalk, and beginning his song the moment he quits his perch. Ascending, he utters a series of long, melodious notes, not loud, but very distinctly enunciated and increasing in volume; at a height of fifty or sixty yards he pauses, the notes becoming slower; then, as he descends with a graceful spiral flight, the wings outstretched and motionless, the notes also fall, becoming lower, sweeter, and more impressive till he reaches the earth. After alighting the song continues, the notes growing longer, thinner, and clearer, until they dwindle to the merest threads of sound, and cease to be audible except to a person standing within a few yards of the songster. The song is quite unique in character, and its great charm is in its gradual progress from the somewhat thick notes at the commencement to the thin, tremulous tones with which the bird returns to earth, and which change again to the excessively attenuated sounds at the end.

The nest is deep, well-built, and well-concealed, sometimes resting on the ground, but frequently raised above it. It contains five long, pointed eggs, with a white or bluish-white ground-colour, and thickly spotted with brown. I have, frequently found the eggs of the _Molothrus_ in its nest, but have never been able to see this Sparrow feeding, or followed by, a young _Molothrus_. Possibly, if it ever hatches the parasitical egg at all, the voracious young Cow-bird is starved by the delicate food supplied by its foster-parents.

92. OROSPINA PRATENSIS, Cab.

(MEADOW SEED-FINCH.)

+Orospina pratensis+, _Cab. Journ. f. Orn._ 1883, p. 108, tab. i.
fig. 1.

_Description._--Cap dark greenish yellow; rump yellowish green;
remainder of upper parts dark brown, feathers of interscapulium and
of wings and tail edged with yellowish green; inner webs of the
outer pair of tail-feathers almost wholly white, the next pair with
a large white spot; under surface yellow, lightest on the throat,
middle of belly, and crissum; flanks greenish: total length 4·5
inches, wing 2·5, tail 1·8.

_Hab._ Tucuman.

Herr Schulz discovered this little Finch, which Dr. Cabanis has referred to a new genus allied to _Sycalis_, upon the high Sierras of Tucuman, where it was observed sitting on the stones.

Fam. XI. ICTERIDÆ, or TROUPIALS.

The Icteridæ or Troupials constitute a large group of Passerine birds allied to our Starlings (_Sturnidæ_), of which they take the place in the New World. They are at once structurally distinguishable from the Starlings by having only 9 primaries in the wing, just as the Mniotiltidæ of the New World are in a similar manner distinguishable from the Sylviidæ.

In America the Icteridæ play an important part, numbering some 130 species, and extending throughout the two continents from north to south. Of these, 15 species occur in Argentina, and amongst them are three species of Cow-bird (_Molothrus_), remarkable for their parasitic habits, of which Hudson's observations have enabled him to give a full and, for the first time, a tolerably complete account.

93. AMBLYCERCUS SOLITARIUS (Vieill.).

(SOLITARY CASSIQUE.)

+Cassicus solitarius+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 36; _Barrows,
Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ viii. p. 133 (Entrerios); _Scl. Cat. B._
p. 326.

_Description._--Uniform black; bill white; feet black: total length
11 inches, wings 4·8, tail 4·5. _Female_ similar, but smaller.

_Hab._ Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Northern Argentina.

Mr. Barrows obtained a single specimen of this species at Concepcion, and others were seen. It was said to be an excellent song-bird, and to be more abundant further up the Uruguay River.

94. MOLOTHRUS BONARIENSIS (Gm.).

(ARGENTINE COW-BIRD.)

+Molothrus bonariensis+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 37; _Hudson,
P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 809, 1874, p. 153 (Buenos Ayres); _Durnford,
Ibis_, 1877, pp. 33, 174 (Chupat); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p.
601 (Buenos Ayres); _Döring, Exp. al Rio Negro, Zool._ p. 41
(Carhué); _Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ viii. p. 133
(Entrerios); _Scl. Cat. B._ xi. p. 335. +Molothrus sericeus+,
_Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 494.

_Description._--Uniform shining purplish black; less lustrous on
wings and tail; bill and feet black: total length 7·5 inches, wing
4·5, tail 3·0. _Female_ dark ashy brown, beneath paler; slightly
smaller in size.

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

This species is the _Tordo Comun_ of Azara, and is usually called "_Tordo_" or "_Pajaro Negro_" by the Spanish, and "_Blackbird_" by the English-speaking Argentines. A more suitable name, I think, is the Argentine Cow-bird, which has been given to it by some writers on ornithology, Cow-bird being the name of the closely allied North-American species, _Molothrus pecoris_.

This Cow-bird is widely distributed in South America, and is common throughout the Argentine country, including Patagonia, as far south as Chupat. In Buenos Ayres it is very numerous, especially in cultivated districts where there are plantations of trees. The male is clothed in a glossy plumage of deep violaceous purple, the wings and tail being dark metallic green; but seen at a distance or in the shade the bird looks black. The female is inferior in size and has a dull, mouse-coloured plumage, and black beak and legs. The males are much more numerous than the females. Azara says that nine birds in ten are males; but I am not sure that the disparity is so great as that. It seems strange and contrary to Nature's usual rule that the smaller, shyer, inconspicuous individuals should be in such a minority; but the reason is perhaps that the _male eggs_ of the Cow-bird are harder-shelled than the _female eggs_, and escape destruction oftener, when the parent bird exercises its disorderly and destructive habit of pecking holes in all the eggs it finds in the nests into which it intrudes.

The Cow-birds are sociable to a greater degree than most species, their companies not breaking up during the laying-season; for, as they are parasitical, the female merely steals away to drop her egg in any nest she can find, after which she returns to the flock. They feed on the ground, where in their movements and in the habit the male has of craning out its neck when disturbed, they resemble Starlings. The male has also a curious habit of carrying his tail raised vertically while feeding. They follow the domestic cattle about the pastures, and frequently a dozen or more birds may be seen perched along the back of a cow or horse. When the animal is grazing they group themselves close to its mouth, like chickens round a hen when she scratches up the ground, eager to snatch up the small insects exposed where the grass is cropped close. In spring they also follow the plough to pick up worms and grubs.

The song of the male, particularly when making love, is accompanied with gestures and actions somewhat like those of the domestic Pigeon. He swells himself out, beating the ground with his wings, and uttering a series of deep internal notes, followed by others loud and clear; and occasionally, when uttering them, he suddenly takes wing and flies directly away from the female to a distance of fifty yards, and performs a wide circuit about her in the air, singing all the time. The homely object of his short-lived passion always appears utterly indifferent to this curious and pretty performance; yet she must be even more impressionable than most female birds, since she continues scattering about her parasitical and often wasted eggs during four months in every year. Her language consists of a long note with a spluttering sound, to express alarm or curiosity, and she occasionally chatters in a low tone as if trying to sing. In the evening, when the birds congregate on the trees to roost they often continue singing in concert until it is quite dark; and when disturbed at night the males frequently utter their song while taking flight, reminding one of the _Icterus pyrrhopterus_, which has only its usual melody to express fear and other painful emotions. On rainy days, when they are driven to the shelter of trees, they will often sing together for hours without intermission, the blending of innumerable voices producing a rushing sound as of a high wind. At the end of summer they congregate in flocks of tens of thousands, so that the ground where they are feeding seems carpeted with black, and the trees when they alight appear to have a black foliage. At such times one wonders that many small species on which they are parasites do not become extinct by means of their pernicious habit. In Buenos Ayres, where they are most numerous, they have a migration, which is only partial, however. It is noticeable chiefly in the autumn, and varies greatly in different years. In some seasons it is very marked, when for many days in February and March the birds are seen travelling northwards, flock succeeding flock all day long, passing by with a swift low undulating flight, their wings producing a soft musical sound; and this humming flight of the migrating Cow-birds is as familiar to every one acquainted with nature in Buenos Ayres as the whistling of the wind or the distant lowing of cattle.

The procreant instinct of this _Molothrus_ has always seemed so important to me, for many reasons, that I have paid a great deal of attention to it; and the facts, or, at all events, the most salient of them, which I have collected during several years of observation, I propose to append here, classified under different headings so as to avoid confusion and to make it easy for other observers to see at a glance just how much I have learnt.

Though I have been familiar with this species from childhood, when I used to hunt every day for their wasted eggs on the broad, clean walks of the plantation, and removed them in pity from the nests of little birds where I found them, I have never ceased to wonder at their strange instinct, which in its wasteful destructive character, so unlike the parasitical habit in other species, seems to strike a discordant note in the midst of the general harmony of nature.

_Mistakes and Imperfections of the Procreant Instinct of_ Molothrus bonariensis.

1. The Cow-birds, as we have seen, frequently waste their eggs by dropping them on the ground.

2. They also occasionally lay in old forsaken nests. This I have often observed, and to make very sure I took several old nests and placed them in trees and bushes, and found that eggs were laid in them.

3. They also frequently lay in nests where incubation has actually begun. When this happens the Cow-bird's egg is lost if incubation is far advanced; but if the eggs have been sat on three or four days only, then it has a good chance of being hatched and the young bird reared along with its foster-brothers.

4. One female often lays several eggs in the same nest, instead of laying only one, as does, according to Wilson, the _Molothrus pecoris_ of North America. I conclude that this is so from the fact that in cases where the eggs of a species vary considerably in form, size, and markings, each individual of the species lays eggs precisely or nearly alike. So when I find two, three, or four eggs of the Cow-bird in one nest all alike in colour and other particulars, and yet in half a hundred eggs from other nests cannot find one to match with them, it is impossible not to believe that the eggs found together, and possessing a family likeness, were laid by the same bird.

5. Several females often lay in one nest, so that the number of eggs in it frequently makes incubation impossible. One December I collected ten nests of the Scissor-tail (_Milvulus tyrannus_) from my trees; they contained a total of 47 eggs, 12 of the Scissor-tails and 35 of the Cow-birds. It is worthy of remark that the _Milvulus_ breeds in October or early in November, rearing only one brood; so that these ten nests found late in December were of birds that had lost their first nests. Probably three fourths of the lost nests of _Milvulus_ are abandoned in consequence of the confusion caused in them by the Cow-birds.

6. The Cow-birds, male and female, destroy many of the eggs in the nests they visit, by pecking holes in the shells, breaking, devouring, and stealing them. This is the most destructive habit of the bird, and is probably possessed by individuals in different degrees. I have often carefully examined all the parasitical eggs in a nest, and after three or four days found that these eggs had disappeared, others, newly laid, being in their places. I have seen the female Cow-bird strike her beak into an egg and fly away with it; and I have often watched the male bird perched close by while the female was on the nest, and when she quitted it seen him drop down and begin pecking holes in the eggs. In some nests found full of parasitical eggs every egg has holes pecked in the shell, for the bird destroys indiscriminately eggs of its own and of other species.

_Advantages possessed by_ M. bonariensis _over its dupes._

After reading the preceding notes one might ask, If there is so much that is defective and irregular in the reproductive instinct of _M. bonariensis_, how does the species maintain its existence, and even increase to such an amazing extent? for it certainly is very much more numerous, over an equal area, than other parasitical species. For its greater abundance there may be many reasons unknown to us. The rarer species may be less hardy, have more enemies, be exposed to more perils in their long migrations, &c. That it is able to maintain its existence in spite of irregularities in its instinct is no doubt due to the fact that its eggs and young possess many advantages over the eggs and young of the species upon which it is parasitical. Some of these advantages are due to those very habits of the parent bird which at first sight appear most defective; others to the character of the egg and embryo, time of evolution, &c.

1. The egg of the Cow-bird is usually larger, and almost invariably harder-shelled than are the eggs it is placed with; those of the Yellow-breast (_Pseudoleistes virescens_) being the one exception I am acquainted with. The harder shell of its own egg, considered in relation to the destructive egg-breaking habit of the bird, gives it the best chance of being preserved; for though the Cow-bird never distinguishes its own eggs, of which indeed it destroys a great many, a larger proportion escape in a nest where many eggs are indiscriminately broken.

2. The vitality or tenacity of life appears greater in the embryo Cow-bird than in other species; this circumstance also, in relation to the egg-breaking habit and to the habit of laying many eggs in a nest, gives it a further advantage. I have examined nests of the Scissor-tail, containing many eggs, after incubation had begun, and have been surprised at finding those of the Scissor-tail addled, even when placed most advantageously in the nest for receiving heat from the parent bird, while those of the Cow-bird contained living embryos, even when under all the other eggs, and, as frequently happens, glued immovably to the nest by the matter from broken eggs spilt over them.

The following instance of extraordinary vitality in an embryo _Molothrus_ seems to show incidentally that in some species protective habits, which will act as a check on the parasitical instinct, may be in the course of formation.

Though birds do not, as a rule, seem able to distinguish parasitical eggs from their own, however different in size and colour they may be, they often do seem to know that eggs dropped in their nest before they themselves have began to lay ought not to be there; and the nest, even after its completion, is not infrequently abandoned on account of these premature eggs. Some species, however, do not forsake their nests; and though they do not throw the parasitical eggs out, which would seem the simplest plan, they have discovered how to get rid of them and so save themselves the labour of making a fresh nest. Their method is to add a new deep lining, under which the strange eggs are buried out of sight and give no more trouble. The _Sisopygis icterophrys_--a common Tyrant-bird in Buenos Ayres--frequently has recourse to this expedient; and the nest it makes being rather shallow the layer of fresh material, under which the strange eggs are buried, is built upwards above the rim of the original nest; so that this supplementary nest is like one saucer placed within another, and the observer is generally able to tell from the thickness of the whole structure whether any parasitical eggs have been entombed in it or not. Finding a very thick nest one day, containing two half-fledged young birds besides three addled eggs, I opened it, removing the upper portion, or additional nest, intact, and discovered beneath it three buried _Molothrus_ eggs, their shells encrusted with dirt and glued together with broken egg-matter spilt over them. In trying to get them out without pulling the nest to pieces I broke them all; two were quite rotten, but the third contained a living embryo, ready to be hatched, and very lively and hungry when I took it in my hand. The young Tyrant-birds were about a fortnight old, and as they hatch out only about twenty days after the parent-bird begins laying, this parasitical egg with a living chick in it must have been deeply buried in the nest for five or six weeks. Probably after the young Tyrant-birds came out of their shells and began to grow, the little heat from their bodies penetrating to the buried egg, served to bring the embryo in it to maturity; but when I saw it I felt (like a person who sees a ghost) strongly inclined to doubt the evidence of my own senses.

3. The comparatively short time the embryo takes to hatch gives it another and a great advantage; for, whereas the eggs of other small birds require from fourteen to sixteen days to mature, that of the Cow-bird hatches in eleven days and a half from the moment incubation commences; so that when the female Cow-bird makes so great a mistake as to drop an egg with others that have already been sat on, unless incubation be very far advanced, it still has a chance of being hatched before or contemporaneously with the others; but even if the others hatch first, the extreme hardiness of the embryo serves to keep it alive with the modicum of heat it receives.

4. Whenever the _Molothrus_ is hatched together with the young of its foster-parents, if these are smaller than the parasite, as usually is the case, soon after exclusion from the shell they disappear, and the young Cow-bird remains sole occupant of the nest. How it succeeds in expelling or destroying them, if it indeed does destroy them, I have not been able too learn.

5. To all these circumstances favourable to the _Molothrus_ may be added another of equal or even greater importance. It is never engaged with the dilatory and exhaustive process of rearing its own young; and for this reason continues in better condition than other species, and, moreover, being gregarious and practising promiscuous sexual intercourse, must lay a much greater number of eggs than other species. In our domestic fowls we see that hens that never become broody lay a great deal more than others. Some of our small birds rear two, others only one brood in the season--building, incubation, and tending the young taking up much time, so that they are usually from two to three months and a half employed. But the Cow-bird is like the fowl that never incubates, and continues dropping eggs during four months and a half. From the beginning of September until the end of January the males are seen incessantly wooing the females, and during most of this time eggs are found. I find that small birds will, if deprived repeatedly of their nests, lay and even hatch four times in the season, thus laying, if the full complement be four, sixteen eggs. No doubt the Cow-bird lays a much larger number than that; my belief is that every female lays from sixty to a hundred eggs every season, though I have nothing but the extraordinary number of wasted eggs one finds to judge from.

Before dismissing the subject of the advantages the _Molothrus_ possesses over its dupes, and of the real or apparent defects of its instinct, some attention should be given to another circumstance, viz., the new conditions introduced by land-cultivation and their effect on the species. The altered conditions have, in various ways, served to remove many extraneous checks on the parasitical instinct, and the more the birds multiply, the more irregular and disordered does the instinct necessarily become. In wild districts where it was formed, and where birds building accessible nests are proportionately fewer, the instinct seems different from what it does in cultivated districts. Parasitical eggs are not common in the desert, and even the most exposed nests there are probably never overburdened with them. But in cultivated places, where their food abounds, the birds congregate in the orchards and plantations in great numbers, and avail themselves of all the nests, ill-concealed as they must always be in the clean, open-foliaged trees planted by man.

_Diversity in Colour of Eggs._

There is an extraordinary diversity in the colour, form, and disposition of markings &c. of the eggs of _M. bonariensis_; and I doubt whether any other species exists laying eggs so varied. About half the eggs one finds, or nearly half, are pure unspotted white, like the eggs of birds that breed in dark holes. Others are sparsely sprinkled with such exceedingly minute specks of pale pink or grey, as to appear quite spotless until closely examined. After the pure white, the most common variety is an egg with a white ground, densely and uniformly spotted or blotched with red. Another not uncommon variety has a very pale, flesh-coloured ground, uniformly marked with fine characters, that look as if inscribed on the shell with a pen. A much rarer variety has a pure white shell with a few large or variously sized chocolate spots. Perhaps the rarest variety is an egg entirely of a fine deep red; but between this lovely marbled egg and the white one with almost imperceptible specks, there are varieties without number; for there is no such thing as characteristic markings in the eggs of this species, although, as I have said before, the eggs of the same individual show a family resemblance.

_Habits of the young_ M. bonariensis.

Small birds of all species, when first hatched, closely resemble each other; after they are fledged the resemblance is less, but still comparatively great; grey, interspersed with brown, is the colour of most of them, or at least of the upper exposed plumage. There is also a great similarity in their cries of hunger and fear--shrill, querulous, prolonged, and usually tremulous notes. It is not, then, to be wondered at that the foster-parents of the young _Molothrus_ so readily respond to its cries, understanding the various expressions denoting hunger, fear, pain, as well as when uttered by their own offspring. But the young _Molothrus_ never understands the language of its foster-parents as other young birds understand the language of their real parents, rising to receive food when summoned, and concealing themselves or trying to escape when the warning note is given. How does the young _Molothrus_ learn to distinguish, even by sight, its foster-parent from any other bird approaching the nest? It generally manifests no fear even at a large object. On thrusting my fingers into any nest, I find young birds, if still blind or but recently hatched, will hold up and open their mouths expecting food; but in a very few days they learn to distinguish between their parents and other objects approaching them, and to show alarm even when not warned of danger. Consider the different behaviour of three species that seldom or never warn their offspring of danger. The young of _Synallaxis spixi_, though in a deep domed nest, will throw itself to the ground, attempting thus to make its escape. The young of _Mimus patagonicus_ sits close and motionless, with closed eyes, mimicking death. The young of our common _Zenaida_, even before it is fledged, will swell itself up and strike angrily at the intruder with beak and wings; and, by making so brave a show of its inefficient weapons, it probably often saves itself from destruction. But any thing approaching the young _Molothrus_ is welcomed with fluttering wings and clamorous cries, as if all creatures were expected to minister to its necessities.

December 24.--To-day I found a young _Molothrus_ in the nest of _Spermophila cærulescens_; he cried for food on seeing my hand approach the nest; I took him out and dropped him down, when, finding himself on the ground, he immediately made off, half-flying. After a hard chase I succeeded in recapturing him, and began to twirl him about, making him scream, so as to inform his foster-parents of his situation, for they were not by at the moment. I then put him back in, or rather upon, the little cradle of a nest, and plucked half-a-dozen large measure-worms from an adjacent twig. The worms I handed to the bird as I drew them from the cases, and with great greediness he devoured them all, notwithstanding the ill-treatment he had just received, and utterly disregarding the wild excited cries of his foster-parents, just arrived and hovering within three or four feet of the nest.

Last summer I noticed a young Cow-bird in a stubble-field, perched on the top of a slender dry stalk; as it was clamouring at short intervals, I waited to see what bird would come to it. It proved to be the diminutive _Hapalocercus flaviventris_; and I was much amused to see the little thing fly directly to its larger foster-offspring and, alighting on its back, drop a worm into the upturned open mouth. After remaining a moment on its singular perch, the Flycatcher flew away, but in less than half a minute returned and perched again on the young bird's back. I continued watching them until the _Molothrus_ flew off, but not before I had seen him fed seven or eight times in the same manner.

In the foregoing anecdotes may be seen the peculiar habits of the young _Molothrus_. As the nests in which it is hatched, from those of the little _Serpophaga_ and Wren to those of _Mimus_, vary so much in size and materials, and are placed in such different situations, the young _Molothrus_ must have in most of them a somewhat incongruous appearance. But in the habits of the young bird is the greatest incongruity or inadaptation. When the nest is in a close thicket or forest, though much too small for the bird, and although the bird itself cannot understand its foster-parents, and welcomes all things that, whether with good or evil design, come near it, the unfitness is not so apparent as when the nest is in open fields and plains.

The young _Molothrus_ differs from the true offspring of its foster-parents in its habit of quitting the nest as soon as it is able, trying to follow the old bird, and placing itself in the most conspicuous place it can find, such as the summit of a stalk or weed, and there demanding food with frequent and importunate cries. Thus the little Flycatcher had acquired the habit of perching on the back of its charge to feed it, because parent birds invariably perch above their young to feed them, and the young Cow-bird prevented this by always sitting on the summit of the stalk it perched on. The habit is most fatal on the open and closely cropped pampas inhabited by the Cachila (_Anthus correndera_). In December, when the Cachila Pipit rears its second brood, the _Milvago chimango_ also has young, and feeds them almost exclusively on the young of various species of small birds. At this season the Chimango destroys great numbers of the young of the Cachila and of _Synallaxis hudsoni_. Yet these birds are beautifully adapted in structure, coloration, and habits to their station. It thus happens that in districts where the _Molothrus_ is abundant, their eggs are found in a majority of the Cachilas' nests: and yet to find a young Cow-bird out of the nest is a rare thing here, for as soon as the young birds are able to quit the nest and expose themselves they are all or nearly all carried off by the Chimangos.

_Conjectures as to the Origin of the Parasitic Instinct in_ M. bonariensis.

Darwin's opinion that the "immediate and final cause of the Cuckoo's instinct is that she lays her eggs not daily, but at intervals of two or three days" ('Origin of Species'), carries no great appearance of probability with it; for might it not just as reasonably be said that the parasitic instinct is the immediate and final cause of her laying her eggs at long intervals? If it is favourable to a species with the instinct of the Cuckoo (and it probably is favourable) to lay eggs at longer intervals than other species, then natural selection would avail itself of every modification in the reproductive organs that tended to produce such a result, and make the improved structure permanent. It is said ('Origin of Species,' chapter vii.) that the American Cuckoo lays also at long intervals, and has eggs and young at the same time in its nest, a circumstance manifestly disadvantageous. Of the _Coccyzus melanocoryphus_, the only one of our three _Coccyzi_ whose nesting-habits I am acquainted with, I can say that it never begins to incubate till the full complement of eggs are laid--that its young are hatched simultaneously. But if it is sought to trace the origin of the European Cuckoo's instinct in the nesting-habits of American _Coccyzi_, it might be attributed not to the aberrant habit of perhaps a single species, but to another and more disadvantageous habit common to the entire genus, viz., their habit of building exceedingly frail platform-nests from which the eggs and young very frequently fall. By occasionally dropping an egg in the deep, secure nest of some other bird, an advantage would be possessed by the birds hatched in them, and in them the habit would perhaps become hereditary. Be this as it may (and the one guess is perhaps as wide of the truth as the other), there are many genera intermediate between _Cuculus_ and _Molothrus_ in which no trace of a parasitic habit appears; and it seems more than probable that the analogous instincts originated in different ways in the two genera. As regards the origin of the instinct in _Molothrus_, it will perhaps seem premature to found speculations on the few facts here recorded, and before we are acquainted with the habits of other members of the genus. That a species should totally lose so universal an instinct as the maternal one, and yet avail itself of that affection in other species to propagate itself, seems a great mystery. Nevertheless, I cannot refrain from all conjecture on the subject, and will go so far as to suggest what may have been at least one of the many concurrent causes that have produced the parasitic instinct. The apparently transitional nesting-habits of several species, and one remarkable habit of _M. bonariensis_, seem to me to throw some light on a point bearing intimately on the subject, viz., the loss of the nest-making instinct in this species.