Hab. S. America, from Colombia down to Buenos Ayres.

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. Beside this bright Tyrant-bird even the Rainbow Tanagers look pale, and the “Jewel Humming-birds” decidedly sad-coloured. It is not strange, therefore, that in South America, where it has a very wide range, it is a species well known to the country people, and that they have bestowed on it many pretty names, most of which have reference to its splendid scarlet colour. In the Argentine Republic it is usually called Churinche, from its note, also Federál and Fuegéro; in other countries Sangre de Toro (bull’s blood), and, better still, Sangre Pura. Little Soldier and Coal of Fire are also amongst its names. The Guarani tribes call it Guira-pitá (red-bird); but another Indian name, mentioned by d’Orbigny, is the best—Quarhi-rahi, which signifies Sun-born.

The Churinche appears in Buenos Ayres about the end of September, and is usually first seen in localities to which Tyrant-birds are partial, such as low grassy grounds, with here and there a stalk or bush, and near a wood or plantation. Insects are most abundant in such places; and here the Churinche is seen, perched on a twig, darting at intervals to snap at the flies after the fashion of the Flycatchers, and frequently uttering its low, plaintive note. 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.

A very few days after their arrival the Churinches pair; and the male selects a spot for the nest—a fork in a tree from six to twelve feet from the ground, or sometimes a horizontal bough. This spot the male visits about once a minute, sits on it with his splendid crest elevated, tail spread out, and wings incessantly fluttering, while he pours out a continuous stream of silvery gurgling notes, so low they can scarcely be heard ten paces off, and somewhat resembling the sound of water running from a narrow-necked flask, but infinitely more rapid and musical. 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. At intervals he repeats his remarkable little song, composed of a succession of sweetly modulated metallic trills uttered on the wing. The bird usually mounts upwards from thirty to forty yards, and, with wings very much raised and rapidly vibrating, rises and drops almost perpendicularly half a yard’s space five or six times, appearing to keep time to his notes in these motions. This song he frequently utters in the night, but without leaving his perch; and it then has a most pleasing effect, as it is less hurried, and the notes seem softer and more prolonged than when uttered by day. About a week after the birds have arrived, when the trees are only beginning to display their tender leaves, the nest is commenced. Strange to say, the female is the sole builder; for she now lays by her indifferent mien, and the art and industry she displays more than compensate for the absence of those beauties and accomplishments that make her mate so pleasing to the sight and ear. The materials of which the nest is composed are almost all gathered on trees; they are lichens, webs, and thistle-down: and the dexterity and rapidity with which they are gathered, the skill with which she disposes them, the tireless industry of the little bird, who visits her nest a hundred times an hour with invisible webs in her bill, are truly interesting to the observer. The lichens firmly held together with webs, and smoothly disposed with the tops outside, give to the nest the colour of the bark it is built on.

After the Churinche’s nest is completed, the Bienteveo (Pitangus bolivianus) and the Common Cow-bird (Molothrus bonariensis) are the troublers of its peace. The first of these sometimes carries off the nest bodily to use it as material in building its own; the female Cow-bird is ever on the look out for a receptacle for her eggs. Seldom, however, does she succeed in gaining admittance to the Churinche’s nest, as he is extremely vigilant and violent in repelling intruders. But his vigilance at times avails not; the subtle bird has watched and waited till, seizing a moment when the little Scarlet Tyrant is off his guard, she drops her surreptitious egg into his nest. When this happens, the Churinches immediately leave their nest. The nest is sometimes lined with feathers, but usually with thistle-down; the eggs are four, pointed, and spotted at the broad end with black; usually each egg has also a few large grey spots. The young are at first grey, marked with pale rufous, but soon become entirely grey, like the female. In about a month’s time the belly of the males begins to assume a pale mauve-red; this spreads upwards towards the breast and throat; and finally the crest also takes on this colour. The Churinches raise two broods in a season—but if the nest is destroyed, will lay as many as four times.

The Scarlet Tyrant is the first of our summer visitors to leave us. As early as the end of January, and so soon as the young of the second brood are able to feed themselves, the adults disappear. Their going is not gradual, but they all vanish at once. The departure of all other migratory species takes place after a very sensible change in the temperature; but at the end of January the heat is unmitigated—it is, in fact, often greater than during December.

When the adults have gone, the silent young birds remain. Within a month’s time the sexes of these may be distinguished. After another month the males begin to sing, and are frequently seen pursuing one another over the fields. It is only at the end of April, three months after the old birds have disappeared, that the young also take their departure. This is one of the strangest facts I have encountered in the migration of birds. The autumnal cold and wet weather seems to be the immediate cause of the young birds’ departure; but in the adults, migration appears to be an instinct quite independent of atmospheric changes.

163. EMPIDONAX BIMACULATUS (Lafr. et d’Orb.).

(WING-BANDED TYRANT.)

Hab. S.E. Brazil, Bolivia, and N. Argentina.

This obscure species occurs in the northern wooded districts of Argentina.

164. CONTOPUS BRACHYRHYNCHUS, Cab.

(SHORT-BILLED TYRANT.)

Hab. Northern Argentina.

Herr Schulz, who discovered this species near Tucuman, tells us that it is a summer visitor, and is usually seen perched on the tops of the highest trees on the look-out for insects.

165. CONTOPUS BRACHYTARSUS, Scl.

(SHORT-FOOTED TYRANT.)

Hab. Central and South America.

White found this widely ranging Tyrant “not uncommon in the forests of Salta.”

166. MYIARCHUS TYRANNULUS (Müll.).

(RUSTY-TAILED TYRANT.)

Hab. South America down to Argentina.

An example of this species, now in the British Museum, was procured by White in Catamarca.

167. MYIARCHUS FEROX (Gm.).

(FIERCE TYRANT.)

Hab. Southern Antilles, and South America down to Argentine Republic.

There has been great confusion between this species and M. tyrannulus, from which the present bird may be distinguished by the absence of the rufous edgings to the inner webs of the rectrices.

Examples of M. ferox are in the British Museum from Punta Lara (Durnford), Mendoza (Weisshaupt), and Buenos Ayres (Haslehurst).

168. MYIARCHUS ATRICEPS, Cab.

(BLACK-HEADED TYRANT.)

Hab. N. Argentina, Bolivia, and S. Peru.

Schulz found this species as a summer visitor in Tucuman.

169. EMPIDONOMUS AURANTIO-ATRO-CRISTATUS (d’Orb. et Lafr.).

(BLACK-AND-YELLOW-CRESTED TYRANT.)

Hab. Interior of Brazil, Eastern Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina down to Buenos Ayres.

Alcide d’Orbigny met with this fine species in Corrientes, and Dr. Burmeister in Entrerios, and again near Mendoza. In the neighbourhood of Concepcion Mr. Barrows speaks of it as a “not very abundant summer resident, but one not easily overlooked, owing to its habit of perching on the topmost twig of any tree on which it alights, making forays from time to time, when tempted by its winged prey.”

In the vicinity of Buenos Ayres likewise this Tyrant is not a common species. Like other birds of its genus it has an easy, rapid flight, and perches on trees or other elevated places, from which it occasionally makes a dash at passing insects. The nest, as in T. melancholicus, is a very slight structure of slender sticks, and the eggs are four, parchment colour, and spotted at the large end with dark brown or chocolate. Mr. Barrows found a Cow-bird’s egg in a nest of this species, which makes me think that it is less vigilant and warlike than T. melancholicus.

170. TYRANNUS MELANCHOLICUS, Vieill.

(MELANCHOLY TYRANT.)

Hab. Mexico and Central and South America down to Buenos Ayres.

The violent and bold temper exhibited by most Tyrant-birds during the breeding-season, a quality from which is derived the name of the family, is perhaps carried to a greater degree in this species than in any other; and when one spends many days or weeks in the marshy, littoral forests, where the bird is most abundant, and hears its incessant distressful screams, the specific name melancholicus does not seem altogether inappropriate; and that is the most that can be said of any specific name invented by science, and which does not merely describe some peculiarity of form or colour.

This Tyrant is one of the largest of its kind, its total length being nearly nine inches. The wings are long and suited for an aerial life; the legs are exceedingly short, and the feet are used for perching only, for this species never alights on the ground. The throat and upper parts are grey, tinged with olive on the back; the wings and tail dark; the breast yellow tinged with green; the belly pure yellow. Under the loose grey feathers of the crown is a fiery orange crest displayed in moments of excitement.

In Buenos Ayres these birds arrive in September, after which their shrill, angry cries are incessantly heard, while the birds are seen pursuing each other through the air or in and out amongst the trees—perpetually driven about by the contending passions of love, jealousy, and rage. As soon as their domestic broils are over, a fresh war against the whole feathered race begins, which does not cease until the business of propagation is finished. I have frequently spent hours watching the male, successively attacking, with scarcely an interval of rest, every bird, big or little, approaching the sacred tree where its nest was placed. Its indignation at the sight of a cowardly Carrion-Hawk (Milvago) skulking about in search of small birds’ nests, and the boundless fury of its onset, were wonderful to witness.

They are extremely active, and when not engaged in their endless aerial battles, are pursuing large insects on the wing, usually returning after each capture to their stand, from which they keep a jealous watch on the movements of all winged things about them. They are fond of marshy places and water-courses, where they perch on a tall stalk to watch for insects, and also frequently skim over the water like Swallows to drink and dip their feathers.

A tall tree is usually selected for the nest, which is not unfrequently placed on the very topmost twigs, exposed to the sight of every creature passing overhead, and as if in defiance of birds of prey. With such an aggressive temper as this bird possesses it is not strange perhaps that it builds in the most exposed places, from which the female, in the absence of her vigilant consort, can keep a sharp eye on the movements of her feathered neighbours; but I have often thought it singular that they do not make a deeper receptacle for their eggs, for the nest is merely a slight platform of slender sticks, and very ill-adapted to retain its burden during high winds. The parasitical Cow-bird never enters this nest, which is not strange.

The eggs are four in number, small for the bird, pointed, parchment-white, spotted with dark brown at the larger end.

171. MILVULUS TYRANNUS (Linn.).

(SCISSOR-TAIL TYRANT.)

Hab. Mexico, and Central and South America, down to Patagonia.

The Tijereta (Scissor-tail)—a name derived from the habit the bird has of opening and closing the two long feathers of the tail when flying—is found throughout South America, and in the summer of the Southern Hemisphere ranges as far south as Patagonia.

The tail is forked, and the two outer feathers exceed by over four inches in length the next two. The total length of the adult male is fourteen inches, the tail being ten inches long; this species is therefore one of the longest-tailed we know of. The tail of the female is about two inches shorter than that of the male. The head is intense black; the plumage of the crown is rather long and loose, and when raised displays a vivid yellow crest. The neck and upper surface is light, clear grey; the under surface pure white; the tail black. During flight the two long feathers of the tail stream out behind like a pair of black ribbons; frequently the bird pauses suddenly in its flight, and then the two long feathers open out in the form of the letter V.

The Scissor-tail is migratory, and arrives, already mated, at Buenos Ayres at the end of September, and takes its departure at the end of February in families—old and young birds together. In disposition and general habits it resembles the true Tyrant-birds, but differs from them in language, its various chirping and twittering notes having a hard percussive sound, which Azara well compares to the snapping of castanets. It prefers open situations with scattered trees and bushes; and is also partial to marshy grounds, where it takes up a position on an elevated stalk to watch for insects, and seizes them in the air like the Flycatcher. It also greedily devours elderberries and other small fruits.

The nest is not deep, but is much more elaborately constructed than is usual with the Tyrants. Soft materials are preferred, and in many cases the nests are composed almost exclusively of wool. The inside is cup-shaped, with a flat bottom, and is smooth and hard, the thistle-down with which it is lined being cemented with gum. The eggs are four, sharply pointed, light cream-colour, and spotted, chiefly at the large end, with chocolate. In the breeding-time these Tyrants attack other birds approaching the nest with great spirit, and have a particular hatred to the Chimango, pursuing it with the greatest violence through the air with angry notes, resembling in sound the whetting of a scythe, but uttered with great rapidity and emphasis. How greatly this species is imposed upon by the Cow-bird, notwithstanding its pugnacious temper, we have already seen in my account of that bird.

The Scissor-tails have one remarkable habit; they are not gregarious, but once every day, just before the sun sets, all the birds living near together rise to the tops of the trees, calling to one another with loud, excited chirps, and then mount upwards like rockets to a great height in the air; then, after whirling about for a few moments, they precipitate themselves downwards with the greatest violence, opening and shutting their tails during their wild zigzag flight, and uttering a succession of sharp, grinding notes. After this curious performance they separate in pairs, and perching on the tree-tops each couple utters together its rattling castanet notes, after which the company breaks up.

Fam. XIV. PIPRIDÆ, or MANIKINS.

The brilliantly coloured Pipridæ or Manikins are nearly altogether confined to the tropical portions of the Neotropical Region, where they number about 70 species. Only one of these has as yet been discovered intruding in the northern outskirts of the Argentine Republic.

172. CHIROXIPHIA CAUDATA (Shaw).

(LONG-TAILED MANIKIN.)

Hab. S.E. Brazil, Paraguay, and N.E. Argentina.

White obtained two or three males and one female of this Manikin in the forests of Misiones, on the banks of the Uruguay. One of his specimens is now in the British Museum.

Fam. XV. COTINGIDÆ, or COTINGAS.

The Cotingidæ are another characteristic Neotropical family, mostly of splendid plumage, and nearly altogether confined within the limits of the tropics. Two stragglers only, belonging to the more obscure sections of the group, are as yet known to occur within the confines of Argentina, though it is quite probable that others may be found later on, when the northern forests are more completely explored.

173. PACHYRHAMPHUS POLYCHROPTERUS (Vieill.).

(WHITE-WINGED BÉCARD.)

Hab. South Brazil, Paraguay, and N.E. Argentina.

This pretty little bird, the only species of the large South-American family Cotingidæ with which I am acquainted, comes as far south as Buenos Ayres, but is very scarce. It lives in woods, and is a shy, solitary bird with nothing in its flight and general appearance to distinguish it from a Tyrant-bird. When flying, it utters a whistling note.

In January 1887, Durnford met with a pair of this species of Bécard in the riverain wood near Belgrano, and secured the male. They were busy catching flies, making frequent sallies from a willow tree in pursuit of them. Mr. Barrows obtained three specimens of what was probably the same bird at Concepcion in Entrerios, in November 1886 (see Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl. viii. p. 203).

In the male of this species, as in many other Bécards, the second primary is abnormally shortened, being only about one inch in length. See remarks on this subject in P. Z. S. 1857, p. 72, whence the woodcut exhibiting this strange feature is taken by kind permission.

174. CASIORNIS RUBRA (Vieill.).

(RUFOUS CHEESE-BIRD.)

Hab. S. Brazil, Paraguay, and N. Argentina.

White obtained a female specimen of this bird at Campo Colorado, Oran, in November 1880; it is now in Sclater’s Collection.

Fam. XVI. PHYTOTOMIDÆ, or PLANT-CUTTERS.

The peculiar form Phytotoma, remarkable for its toothed Fringilline bill, was associated by the older authors with the Finches. But modern researches have shown that it is not an Oscinine genus, and that its true place is near the Cotingidæ; indeed, some authors have placed it within the limits of that family.

Of the four known species of Plant-cutters, all restricted to South America, one is a well-known denizen of the Argentine Republic.

175. PHYTOTOMA RUTILA, Vieill.

(RED-BREASTED PLANT-CUTTER.)

[Plate VIII.]

Hab. Argentine Republic.

I found this curious little bird quite common in Patagonia, where the natives call it Chingolo grande, on account of its superficial resemblance to the common Song-Sparrow (Zonotrichia pileata). The colouring of the sexes differs considerably, the forehead and under surface of the male being deep brick-red; the upper parts dull grey, with a bar on the wing and the tips of the rectrices white; while in the female the upper parts are yellowish grey, obscurely mottled, and the breast and belly buff, with dark spots. 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. When approached it conceals itself in the bush, and when flying progresses by a series of short jerky undulations, the wings producing a loud humming sound.

The nest is made in the interior of a thorny bush, and built somewhat slightly of fine twigs and lined with fibres. The eggs are four, bluish-green in colour, with brownish flecks.

This species is found throughout the Argentine country, in dry, open situations, abounding with a scanty tree and bush vegetation.

Suborder III. TRACHEOPHONÆ.

Fam. XVII. DENDROCOLAPTIDÆ, or WOOD-HEWERS.

The Dendrocolaptidæ are an important family in American Ornithology, numbering some 220 species, and distributed in greater or less abundance over every part of the Neotropical Region from Mexico to Patagonia. Within Argentine limits 46 species occur.

While green is the characteristic colour of the Tyrannidæ, brown is the favoured hue of the Dendrocolaptidæ, both the forest-loving and campos-frequenting members of the group being nearly without exception arrayed in various shades of that sombre colour, to which a ferruginous tail is a very frequent appendage.

The Dendrocolaptidæ fall into four subfamilies, all of which have representatives in Argentina. These are (1) the Furnariinæ, or Oven-birds, which are terrestrial in habits and have their feet adapted for this mode of life; (2) the Sclerurinæ, or Leaf-scrapers, known by their spiny tail, which keep to the ground inside the forests; (3) the Synallaxinæ, or Sharp-tails, mostly bush-frequenting birds; and (4) the Dendrocolaptinæ, or Wood-hewers, which have the habits of our Creepers (Certhia), and use their tail as a climbing-organ. All the members of this great family feed exclusively on insects.

Subfam. I. FURNARIINÆ.

176. GEOSITTA CUNICULARIA (Vieill.).

(COMMON MINER.)

Hab. Chili, Patagonia and Argentina.

The country people have a variety of names for this common and well-known species. In Buenos Ayres it is usually called Manea-cola (Shake-tail), in Patagonia Caserita (Little House-builder), and in other places Minera (Miner) or Caminante (Traveller), from its habit of running rapidly along a clean road or bridle-path before a person riding or walking.

It is a stout little bird, with very short toes quite unsuited for perching, and it does not, in fact, ever perch on a tree, though it manages to cling to a perpendicular bank very well, when engaged in opening its breeding-hole. It is resident and pairs for life, and lives in sterile places, feeding on small insects and spiders. In manner it is very lively, and runs swiftly over the bare ground, stopping very abruptly, then running on again, and at every pause slowly moving its half-open tail up and down. It flies swiftly, close to the ground, and always during its short flight trills out its clear, ringing, rapidly reiterated cry, which in sound resembles the laughter of a child.

On the grassy pampas the Miners invariably attach themselves to the Vizcacheras—as the groups of great burrows made by the large rodent, the Vizcacha, are called; for there is always a space free from grass surrounding the burrows where the birds can run freely about. In the sides of the deep pit-like entrance to one of these burrows the bird bores a cylindrical hole, from three to six feet long, and terminating in a circular chamber. This is lined with soft dry grass, and five white eggs are laid.

Though the birds inhabit the Vizcacha village all the year, they seem always to make a fresh hole to breed in every spring, the forsaken holes being given up to the small Swallow, Atticora cyanoleuca.

177. GEOBAMON RUFIPENNIS, Burm.

(RED-WINGED MINER.)

Hab. Paraná.

This form is unknown to us, and we can only give a short translation of Burmeister’s description of it. It is said to resemble Geositta, but has a much shorter and perfectly straight beak.

178. FURNARIUS RUFUS (Gm.).

(RED OVEN-BIRD.)

Hab. Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay.

The Red Oven-bird is an extremely well-known species in Argentina, and, where found, a great favourite on account of its familiarity with man, its loud, ringing, cheerful voice, and its wonderful mud nest, which it prefers to build near a human habitation, often on a cornice, a projecting beam, or on the roof of the house itself.

It is a stout little bird, about 8½ to 9 inches long, with a slender, slightly-curved beak nearly an inch in length, and strong legs suited to its terrestrial habits. The upper plumage is uniform rufous-brown in colour, brightest on the tail; the under surface very light brown. It ranges throughout the Argentine Republic to Bahia Blanca in the south, and is usually named Hornero or Casera (Oven-bird or House-builder), but in Paraguay and Corrientes it is called Alonzo Garsia or Alonzito. Azara could give no reason for such a name; but it seems to me that one need not look for one beyond the fact that this species inspires an affectionate admiration in the country people: I mean in those of Spanish origin, for the bird-killing French and Italians have no tenderness for it. I have frequently been assured by natives that the Hornero is a pious bird, and always suspends its labours on sacred days. With this pretty belief about it in their minds, it is not strange that in some districts they have called it by a human name.

It is resident, pairs for life, and finds its food, which consists of larvæ and worms, exclusively on the ground. It delights in open places, where it can move freely about on the ground; and is partial to courtyards, clean garden-walks, &c., where, with head thrown back and bosom prominent, it struts along with an air of great gravity, lifting its foot high at each step, and holding it suspended for a moment in the air before setting it firmly down. I once saw one fly down on to a narrow plank about ten feet long lying out on the wet grass; it walked gravely to the end of the plank, then turned, and deliberately walked back to the other end, and so on for about twenty times, appearing to take the greatest pleasure in the mere act of promenading on a smooth level surface. When disturbed, the Oven-bird has a loud, monotonous note of alarm or curiosity, which never fails to bring all its fellows within hearing-distance to the spot. The movements of a fox, weasel, or cat in a plantation can always be known from the noisy turmoil among the Oven-birds. At frequent intervals during the day the male and female meet and express their joy in clear, resonant notes sung in concert—a habit common to a very large number of Dendrocolaptine birds, including, I think, all those species which pair for life. In a majority of species this vocal performance merely consists of a succession of confused notes or cries, uttered with great spirit and emphasis; in the Oven-bird it has developed into a kind of harmonious singing. Thus, the first bird, on the appearance of its mate flying to the place of meeting, emits loud measured notes, sometimes a continuous trilling note with a somewhat hollow metallic sound; but immediately on the other bird joining, this introductory passage is changed to rapid triplets, strongly accented on the first and last notes, while the second bird utters a series of loud measured notes perfectly according with the triplets of the first. While thus singing they stand facing each other, their necks outstretched, wings hanging, and tails spread, the first bird trembling with its rapid utterances, the second beating on the branch with its wings. The finale consists of three or four notes uttered by the second bird alone, and becoming successively louder and more piercing until the end. There is an infinite variety in the tone in which different couples sing, also in the order in which the different notes are uttered, and even the same couple do not repeat their duet in precisely the same way; but it is always a rhythmical and, to some extent, an harmonious performance, and as the voices have a ringing, joyous character, it always produces a pleasing effect on the mind.

In favourable seasons the Oven-birds begin building in the autumn, and the work is resumed during the winter whenever there is a spell of mild wet weather. Some of their structures are finished early in winter, others not until spring, everything depending on the weather and the condition of the birds. In cold dry weather, and when food is scarce, they do not work at all. The site chosen is a stout horizontal branch, or the top of a post, and they also frequently build on a cornice or the roof of a house; and sometimes, but rarely, on the ground. The material used is mud, with the addition of horsehair or slender fibrous rootlets, which make the structure harder and prevent it from cracking. I have frequently seen a bird, engaged in building, first pick up a thread or hair, then repair to a puddle, where it was worked into a pellet of mud about the size of a filbert, then carried to the nest. When finished the structure is shaped outwardly like a baker’s oven, only with a deeper and narrower entrance. It is always placed very conspicuously, and with the entrance facing a building, if one be near, or if at a roadside it looks toward the road; the reason for this being, no doubt, that the bird keeps a cautious eye on the movements of people near it while building, and so leaves the nest opened and unfinished on that side until the last, and there the entrance is necessarily formed. When the structure has assumed the globular form with only a narrow opening, the wall on one side is curved inwards, reaching from the floor to the dome, and at the inner extremity an aperture is left to admit the bird to the interior or second chamber, in which the eggs are laid. A man’s hand fits easily into the first or entrance chamber, but cannot be twisted about so as to reach the eggs in the interior cavity, the entrance being so small and high up. The interior is lined with dry soft grass, and five white pear-shaped eggs are laid. The oven is a foot or more in diameter, and is sometimes very massive, weighing eight or nine pounds, and so strong that, unless loosened by the swaying of the branch, it often remains unharmed for two or three years. 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. A new oven is built every year, and I have more than once seen a second oven built on the top of the first, when this has been placed very advantageously, as on a projection and against a wall.

A very curious thing occurred at the estancia house of a neighbour of mine in Buenos Ayres one spring. A pair of Oven-birds built their oven on a beam-end projecting from the wall of a rancho. One morning one of the birds was found caught in a steel trap placed the evening before for rats, and both of its legs were crushed above the knee. On being liberated it flew up to and entered the oven, where it bled to death, no doubt, for it did not come out again. Its mate remained two days, calling incessantly, but there were no other birds of its kind in the place, and it eventually disappeared. Three days later it returned with a new mate, and immediately the two birds began carrying pellets of mud to the oven, with which they plastered up the entrance. Afterwards they built a second oven, using the sepulchre of the dead bird for its foundation, and here they reared their young. My neighbour, an old native, had watched the birds from the time the first oven was begun, feeling greatly interested in their diligent ways, and thinking their presence at his house a good omen; and it was not strange that, after witnessing the entombment of one that died, he was more convinced than ever that the little House-builders are “pious birds.”

179. FURNARIUS TRICOLOR, Cab.

(CRESTED OVEN-BIRD.)