Argentine Ornithology Volume Ii Part 14

+Haliaetus melanoleucus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 435 (Parana, Tuc.u.man, Pampas). +Geranoaetus melanoleucus+, _Scl. et Salv.

Nomencl._ p. 119; _Hudson, P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 536 (Rio Negro); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 38, et 1878, p. 397 (Patagonia); _Gibson, Ibis_, 1879, p. 409 (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 110 (Entrerios and Ventana). +Buteo melanoleucus+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ i. p. 168.

_Description._--Above black, wings grey, with narrow transverse black bars; tail black: beneath, throat grey; breast black, with slight round whitish spots; abdomen white, faintly barred across with grey; bill plumbeous; feet yellow, claws black: whole length 260 inches, wing 190, tail 105. _Female_ similar, but larger.

_Hab._ Whole southern half of South America, and western portion of northern half.

The Grey or Chilian Eagle, like most diurnal birds of prey, undergoes many changes of colour, the plumage at different periods having its brown, black, and grey stages: in the old birds it is a uniform clear grey, and the under surface white. Throughout the Argentine country this is the commonest Eagle, and I found it very abundant in Patagonia.

D'Orbigny describes it with his usual prolixity--pardonably so in this case, however, the bird being one of the very few species with which he appears to have become familiar from personal observation. He says that it is a wary bird; pairs for life, the male and female never being found far apart; and that it soars in circles with a flight resembling that of a Vulture, and that the form of its broad blunt wings increases its resemblance to that bird. Cavies and small mammals are its usual prey; and in the autumn and winter, when the Pigeons congregate in large numbers, it follows their movements. During the Pigeon-season, he has counted as many as thirty Eagles in the course of a three leagues' ride; and he has frequently seen an Eagle swoop down into a cloud of Pigeons, and invariably reappear with one struggling in its talons. It is seldom found far from the sh.o.r.es of the sea or of some large river; and on the Atlantic coast, in Patagonia, it soars above the sands at ebb-tide, looking out for stranded fish, carcases of seals, and other animal food left by the retiring waters, and quarrels with Condors and Vultures over the refuse, even when it is quite putrid. It acts as a weather prognostic, and before a storm is seen to rise in circles to a vast height in the air, uttering piercing screams, which may be heard after it has quite disappeared from sight.

The nest of this species is usually built on the ledge of an inaccessible rock or precipice, but not unfrequently on a tree. Mr.

Gibson describes one, which he found on the top of a thorn-tree, as a structure of large sticks three feet in diameter, the hollow cus.h.i.+oned with dry gra.s.s. It contained two eggs, dull white, marked with pale reddish blotches.

Mr. Gibson compares its cry to a "wild human laugh," and also writes:--"Its whereabouts may often be detected by an attendant flock of Caranchos (_Polyborus tharus_), particularly in the case of a young bird. As soon as it rises from the ground or from a tree, these begin to persecute it, ascending spirally also, and making dashes at it, while the Eagle only turns its head watchfully from side to side, the mere action being sufficient to avert the threatened collision."

Gay, in his 'Natural History of Chili,' describes the affectionate and amusing habits of an Eagle of this species which he had tamed. It took great delight in playing with his hand, and would seize and pretend to bite one of his fingers, but really with as much tenderness as a playful dog displays when pretending to bite its master. It used also to amuse itself by picking up a pebble in its beak, and with a jerk of its head toss it up in the air, then seize it in its claws when it fell, after which it would repeat the performance.

301. HARPYHALIAeTUS CORONATUS (Vieill.).

(CROWNED HARPY.)

+Harpyhaliaetus coronatus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 119; _Hudson, P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 536 (Rio Negro); _Sharpe, Cat. B._ i. p. 221.

_Description._--Above ashy brown, with a long occipital crest of darker feathers; wings grey with blackish tips; tail black, with a broad white median band and white tip: beneath paler ashy brown, thighs blackish: whole length 33 inches, wing 220, tail 135.

_Female_ similar, but larger.

_Hab._ South America.

I met with this fine Eagle on the Rio Negro, in Patagonia, where d'Orbigny also found it; the entire Argentine Territory comes, however, within its range. Having merely seen it perched on the tall willows fringing the Rio Negro, or soaring in wide circles far up in the sky, I cannot venture to speak of its habits, while the account of them which d'Orbigny built up is not worth quoting, for he does not say how he got his information. One of his statements would, if true, be very important indeed. He says that his attention was drawn to a very curious fact concerning the Crowned Harpy, which was, that this bird preys chiefly on the skunk--an animal, he very truly adds, with so pestilential an odour that even the most carnivorous of mammals are put to flight by it; that it is the only bird of prey that kills the skunk, and that it does so by precipitating itself from a vast height upon its quarry, which it then quickly despatches. It would not matter at all whether the Eagle dropped from a great or a moderate height, for in either case the skunk would receive its enemy with the usual pestilent discharge. D'Orbigny's account is, however, pure conjecture, and though he does not tell us what led him to form such a conclusion, I have no doubt that it was because the Eagle or Eagles he obtained had the skunk-smell on their plumage. Most of the Eagles I shot in Patagonia, including about a dozen Chilian Eagles, smelt of skunk, the smell being in most cases old and faint. Of two Crowned Harpies obtained, only one smelt of skunk. This only shows that in Patagonia Eagles attack the skunk, which is not strange, considering that it is of a suitable size and conspicuously marked; that it goes about fearlessly in the daytime and is the most abundant animal, the small cavy excepted, in that sterile country. But whether the Eagles _succeed_ in their attacks on it is a very different matter. The probability is that when an Eagle, incited by the pangs of hunger, commits so great a mistake as to attack a skunk, the pestilent fluid, which has the same terribly burning and nauseating effects on the lower animals as on man, very quickly makes it abandon the contest. It is certain that pumas make the same mistake as the Eagles do, for in some that are caught the fur smells strongly of skunk. It might be said that the fact that many Eagles smell of skunk serves to show that they do feed on them, for otherwise they would learn by experience to avoid so dangerous an animal, and the smell of a first encounter would soon wear off. I do not think that hungry birds of prey, in a barren country like Patagonia, would learn from one repulse, or even from several, the fruitlessness and danger of such attacks; while the smell is so marvellously persistent that one or two such attacks a year on the part of each Eagle would be enough to account for the smell on so many birds.

If skunks could be easily conquered by Eagles, they would not be so numerous or so neglectful of their safety as we find them.

A fine example of this bird was brought alive from the Argentine Republic to England by Mr. E. W. Goodlake in 1863, and lived for several years in the Zoological Society's Gardens.

302. GERANOSPIZIAS CaeRULESCENS (Vieill.).

(GREY CRANE-HAWK.)

+Geranospiza caerulescens+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 121; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 623 (Salta). +Geranospizias caerulescens+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ i. p. 81.

_Description._--Above plumbeous, nape and upper tail-coverts slightly mottled with white; wing-feathers black, with a large white spot on the inner webs of the primaries; tail black, with two broad ochraceous white bars and white tip: beneath plumbeous, abdomen and under wing-coverts with irregular white cross bands; bill plumbeous; feet yellow: whole length 165 inches, wing 95, tail 80. _Female_ similar, but not so distinctly coloured, and larger.

_Hab._ South America.

White obtained an example of this species at Campo Colorado, near Oran, and another on the Upper Uruguay.

303. FALCO PEREGRINUS, Linn.

(PEREGRINE FALCON.)

+Falco peregrinus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 121; _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 470. +Falco communis+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ i. p.

376.

_Description._--Above plumbeous, lighter on the rump, more or less distinctly barred with blackish; head and cheeks blackish: beneath white, tinged with cinnamomeous, abdomen and thighs sparingly traversed by narrow black cross bands; under surface of wings white, regularly banded with ashy black; bill plumbeous; cere yellow; feet yellow, nails black: whole length 20 inches, wing 140, tail 67. _Female_ similar, but larger.

_Hab._ Old and New Worlds.

The Peregrine Falcon is found throughout the Argentine Republic, but is nowhere numerous, and is not migratory; nor is it "essentially a duck-hawk," as in India according to Dr. Anderson, for, it preys chiefly on land birds. It is solitary, and each bird possesses a favourite resting-place or _home_, where it spends several hours every day, and also roosts at night. Where there are trees it has its chosen site where it may always be found at noon; but on the open treeless pampas a mound of earth or the bleached skull of a horse or cow serves it for a perch, and here for months the bird may be found every day on its stand. It sits upright and motionless, springs suddenly into the air when taking flight, and flies in a straight line, and with a velocity which few birds can equal. Its appearance always causes great consternation amongst other birds, for even the Spur-winged Lapwing, the spirited persecutor of all other Hawks, flies screaming with terror from it. It prefers attacking moderately large birds, striking them on the wing, after which it stoops to pick them up. While out riding one day, I saw a Peregrine sweep down from a great height and strike a Burrowing-Owl to the earth, the Owl having risen up before me. It then picked it up and flew away with it in its talons.

The Peregrine possesses one very curious habit. When a plover, pigeon, or duck is killed, it eats the skin and flesh of the head and neck, picking the vertebrae clean of the flesh down to the breast-bone, and also eating the eyes, but leaving the body untouched. I have found scores of dead birds with head and neck picked clean in this way; and once I watched for some months a Peregrine which had established itself near my home, where it made havoc among the Pigeons; and I frequently marked the spot to which it carried its prey, and on going to the place always found that the Pigeon's head and neck only had been stripped of flesh. The Burrowing-Owl has an a.n.a.logous habit, for it invariably rejects the hind quarters of the toads and frogs which it captures.

At the approach of the warm season the Peregrines are often seen in twos and threes violently pursuing each other at a great height in the air, and uttering shrill piercing screams, which can be heard distinctly after the birds have disappeared from sight.

304. FALCO FUSCO-CaeRULESCENS, Vieill.

(ORANGE-CHESTED HOBBY.)

+Falco femoralis+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 437 (Pampas).

+Hypotriorchis femoralis+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 121; _iid.

P. Z. S._ 1868, p. 143 (Buenos Ayres); _Hudson, P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 536 (Rio Negro); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 187, (Buenos Ayres), et 1878, p. 398 (Patagonia); _Salvin, Ibis_, 1880, p. 362 (Salta); _Gibson, Ibis_, 1879, p. 412 (Buenos Ayres); _White, P.

Z. S._ 1883, p. 41 (Cordova); _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 470 (Lomas de Zamora). +Falco fusco-caerulescens+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ p. 400.

_Description._--Above dull slaty blackish, rump variegated with white; superciliaries lengthened and joined behind on the nape rufous: beneath, throat and breast pale cinnamomeous with black shaft-stripes on the breast; broad band across the belly black, with slight white transverse lines; lower belly and thighs clear cinnamomeous; wings and tail blackish with transverse white bars; bill yellow with black tip; feet orange, claws black: whole length 135 inches, wing 100, tail 70. _Female_ similar, but larger.

_Hab._ Central and South America.

The Orange-chested Hobby is found throughout South and Central America, but the form met with here differs, to some extent, in habits from its representatives of the hotter region. It is a Patagonian bird, the most common Falcon in that country, and is migratory, wintering in the southern and central Argentine provinces. In its winter home it is solitary, and fond of hovering about farm-houses, where it sits on a tree or post and looks out for its prey. Compared with the Peregrine it has a very poor spirit, and I have often watched it give chase to a bird, and just when it seemed about to grasp its prey, give up the pursuit and slink ingloriously away. It never boldly and openly attacks any bird, except of the smallest species, and prefers to perch on an elevation from which it can dart down suddenly and take its prey by surprise.

The nest is a slovenly structure of sticks on a th.o.r.n.y bush or tree.

The eggs, which I have not seen, Darwin describes as follows:--"Surface rough with white projecting points; colour nearly uniform dirty wood-brown; general appearance as if it had been rubbed in brown mud."

305. TINNUNCULUS CINNAMOMINUS (Sw.).

(CINNAMOMEOUS KESTREL.)

+Falco sparverius+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 437 (Mendoza, Tuc.u.man); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 110 (Entrerios). +Tinnunculus sparverius+, _Darwin, Zool. 'Beagle,'_ iii. p. 29 (Rio Negro); _Scl et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 121; _iid. P. Z. S._ 1868, p. 143 (Buenos Ayres); _Hudson, P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 536 (Rio Negro); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 39 (Chupat), p. 188 (Buenos Ayres), et 1878, p. 398 (Centr. Patagonia); _Gibson, Ibis_, 1879, p. 412 (Buenos Ayres). +Cerchneis cinnamomina+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ i. p.

439. +Tinnunculus cinnamominus+, _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 470 (Lomas de Zamora).

_Description._--Above cinnamon-red, with irregular black cross bands on the back; head bluish grey; front and sides of head white; nape and stripes on the sides of the neck black; wings bluish grey with black central spots; remiges black, with numerous white cross bars on the inner webs; tail cinnamon-red, with a broad subterminal black band and white tip: beneath white, with buffy tinge and irregular oval black spots: whole length 105 inches, wing 77, tail 50.

_Female_ similar, but rather larger; upper surface regularly barred across; beneath buffy white with brown shaft-stripes; tail with numerous cross bars.

_Hab._ South America.

The habits of this little Falcon closely resemble those of _Falco fusco-caerulescens_, and like that bird it is common in Patagonia and migrates north in winter. Many individuals, however, do not migrate, as I found when residing at the Rio Negro, where some pairs remained at the breeding-place all the year. Many pairs are also found resident and breeding in other parts of the Argentine country, but it is common only in Patagonia.

It nests in holes in cliffs and also on trees, and sometimes builds its own nest on the large nest of a Dendrocolaptine bird or of a Parroquet.