W. H. Hudson

“ During the cold season, when they live in companies, the singing-time is in the evening, when the birds are gathered in some thick-foliaged tree or bush which they have chosen for a winter roosting-place. This winter-evening song is a hurried twittering, and utterly unlike the serene note of the male bird heard on summer mornings. A little while after sunset the flock bursts into a concert, which lasts several minutes, sinking and growing louder by turns, and during which it is scarcely possible to distinguish the notes of individuals. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is in vain, I think, to attempt to make more than one species out of this widely-spread bird, though specimens from the west coast are usually smaller.
The Scarlet Tyrant is about five inches and a half long; the neck, back, wings, and tail are black, all the rest of the plumage the most vivid scarlet imaginable. The loose feathers of the crown, which form a crest, are especially brilliant, and seem to glow like a live coal amidst the green foliage. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The prevailing colour of the plumage is grey, the irides are deep green, the beak black, slender, and curved. The tail is long, jerked and elevated when the bird is at rest, spread open and depressed in flight. The Calandria’s movements are measured and dignified, its flight low and never extends far, the bird usually passing from one tree to another in a long graceful curve. It goes alone or with its mate only; feeds chiefly on the ground; does not penetrate into deep forests, nor is it seen on the treeless plains. ”

“ Here the birds sit perched a great deal, and repeat at intervals a song or call, composed of four or five loud ticking chirps, followed by a long trilling note. They feed exclusively on the ground, where they creep about, carrying the body horizontally and intently searching for insects. When disturbed, they hurry to their usual refuge, rapidly beating their very feeble wings, and expanding the broad acuminated tail like a fan. When the male and female meet at their nest, after a brief separation, they sing their notes in concert, as if rejoicing over their safe reunion ”

“ 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 Little Red-backs inhabit open unsheltered plains, and have so great a predilection for bare ground on which they can run freely about, that on their arrival on the pampas, where the earth is thickly carpeted with grass, they are seen attaching themselves to roads, sheep-pens, borders of streams, vizcacha villages, and similar places. They are exceedingly restless, running swiftly over the ground, occasionally darting into the air in pursuit of small flies, and all the flock so scattered that there will be a dozen yards between every two birds. ”

“ I have seen a Bienteveo standing in the water in the midst of a flock of Glossy Ibises. They are often seen, as Darwin remarks, hovering like a Kestrel over the grass, and then dashing down to seize their prey. Small snakes, frogs, mice, and lizards all minister to its appetite, and with a capture of this kind it invariably flies to the nearest stone or branch, against which it beats the life of its victim out before devouring it. I once saw one fly out of some weeds carrying a little wriggling snake of a very brittle species and about eight inches long in its beak. ”

“ Thus the open, declared enmity is in reality beneficial to a species; for it is sure to cut off all such individuals as might cause its degeneration. But we can conceive no necessity for such a fatal instinct as that of the Cuckoo and Cow-bird destructive to such myriads of lives in their beginning. And inasmuch as their preservation is inimical to the species on which they are parasitical, there must also here be a struggle. ”

“ In both sexes the eye is yellow, and the feathers of the crown pileated to form a crest.
This bird is usually seen singly, but sometimes associates in small flocks; it is resident, and a very weak flier, and feeds on tender buds and leaves, berries and small seed. The male is frequently seen perched on the summit of a bush, and, amidst the dull-plumaged species that people the grey thickets of Patagonia, the bright red bosom gives it almost a gay appearance. When singing, or uttering its alarm notes when the nest is approached, its voice resembles the feeble bleatings of a small kid or lamb. ”

“ While flying, they do not look like birds of the same species: the male moves with wings rapidly fluttered, like a Starling, but with a slower, more laborious flight, and without deviating; the female, in her eccentric movements in the air, reminds one of a large moth driven from its hiding-place, and flying about confused with the glare of noon.
The nest is made of dry grass on the ground, so cunningly concealed that it is most difficult to find. The eggs are four, white, spotted with reddish brown. ”

“ Male and female are always seen together, for it pairs for life, and the migration, if it has any, is only partial. It flits restlessly along the borders of the stream it frequents, making repeated excursions after small winged insects, taking them in the air, or snatching them up from the surface of the water, and frequently returning to the same stand. While thus employed it perpetually utters a loud, complaining chuck, and at intervals the two birds meet, and, with crests erect and flirting their wings and tails, utter a series of trills and hurried sharp notes in concert. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The birds incubate by turns, and when one returns from the feeding-ground it sings its loud notes, on which the sitting bird rushes forth to join in the joyous chorus, and then flies away, the other taking its place on the eggs. The young are exceedingly garrulous, and when only half-fledged may be heard practising trills and duets in their secure oven, in shrill tremulous voices, which change to the usual hunger-cry of young birds when the parent enters with food. After leaving the nest, the old and young birds live for two or three months together, only one brood being raised in each year. ”

“ It is not strictly gregarious, but in winter goes in parties, never exceeding five or six individuals, and in the breeding-season in pairs. One of its most noteworthy traits is an exaggerated hurry and bustle thrown into all its movements. When passing from one branch to another, it goes by a series of violent jerks, smiting its wings loudly together; and when a party of them return from the fields they rush wildly and loudly screaming to the trees, as if pursued by a bird of prey. They are not singing-birds ”

“ The male has a loud, startled chirp, also a song composed of eight or ten notes, delivered with such vehemence and rapidity, that they run into each other and sound more like a scream than a song. There is not a more clever architect than this species; and while many Synallaxes are laboriously endeavouring to show how stately a mansion of sticks a little bird can erect for itself, the Screaming Finch has successfully solved the problem of how to construct the most perfect nest for lightness, strength, and symmetry with the fewest materials. ”

“ It is very common in the woods along the Plata; every orchard on the pampas is visited by a few of them; and they are very abundant about Buenos Ayres city. Going south they become rarer; but, strange to say, a few individuals find their way to the shores of the Rio Negro, though before reaching it they must cross a high, barren country quite unsuited to them. The natives of the Carmen have no name for the Churinche, but speak of it as a bird wonderful for its beauty and seldom seen. Amongst the dull-plumaged Patagonian species it certainly has a very brilliant appearance. ”

“ To utter this quaint little song the bird perches itself on the summit of a weed or bush, where it solicits attention with a little chipping prelude, and then jerks its head vigorously with each note, delivering its few drops of sound with all the assurance of a master in the art of melody. ”

“ 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 chinks 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. ”

“ Of the little bird’s homely, grey, silent mate the observer will scarcely obtain a glimpse, she appearing as yet to take little or no interest in the affairs that so much occupy the attention of her consort, and keep him in a state of such violent excitement. He is exceedingly pugnacious, so that when not fluttering on the site of his future nest, or snapping up some insect on the wing, he is eagerly pursuing other male Churinches, apparently bachelors, from tree to tree. ”

“ On the great monotonous plains, where most of the small birds are grey- or brown-plumaged, and in winter when there are no flowers to satisfy the desire of the eye for bright colour, it is delightful, while travelling, to meet with an army of these Starlings: their crimson- 107 - bosoms, less bright than the hues of some tropical species, seem then to glow with a strange splendour on the sombre green of earth, and the sight produces an exhilarating effect on the mind. ”

“ Victory at last declares itself for the aggressors, and they busy themselves carrying in materials for their nest, screaming their jubilant notes all the time as if in token of triumph. The brave and industrious Oven-birds, dispossessed of their home, retire to spend their childless summer together, for the male and female never separate ”

“ The Tree-Martin is never seen to soar about in circles; and though when hawking after flies and moths it sweeps the surface of the grass with amazing swiftness, at other times it has a flight strangely slow and of a fashion peculiar to itself: the long wings are depressed as much as those of a Wild Duck when dropping on to the water, and are constantly agitated with tremulous flutterings, short and rapid as those of a butterfly.
Neither is this bird gregarious like all its congeners, though occasionally an individual associates for a while with Swallows of another species ”