Argentine Ornithology Volume Ii Part 23

Dr. Burmeister met with this fine Goose on the Rio Blanco in the province of San Juan, within the confines of the Argentine Republic.

It is an inhabitant of the high Andes of Peru and Bolivia, and is also found throughout the central provinces of Chili, descending to the plains in the winter. Its native name is "_Piuquen_," and it is said to be so abundant on a lagoon near the Portello Pa.s.s between Mendoza and Santiago that the spot is called "Valle de los Piuquenes."

336. BERNICLA DISPAR, Ph. et Landb.

(BARRED UPLAND GOOSE.)

+Bernicla dispar+, _Burmeister, P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 366 (Sierra Tinta, Rio Negro). +Bernicla antarctica+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii.

p. 514 (err.). +Chloephaga dispar+, _Scl. P. Z. S._ 1867, p. 334 (Chili). +Bernicla magellanica+, _Scl. P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 549 (Rio Negro); _Durnf. Ibis_, 1878, p. 400 (Chupat). +Chloephaga magellanica+, _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 273 (Carhue).

_Description._--White; neck behind and body beneath banded with black; primaries, greater wing-coverts, tertiaries, and scapulars cinereous; rump and tail-feathers ashy black; bill black; feet dark plumbeous: whole length 260 inches, wing 160, tail 55. _Female_: head and neck cinnamon-brown; abdomen similar, pa.s.sing into white on the crissum, and altogether barred with black; upper back also barred; rump and tail-feathers brownish black.

_Hab._ Chili and Argentina.

This bird is a northern form of the well-known "Upland Goose" of the Falkland Islands and Southern Patagonia, from which it differs in the male being completely barred across with black on the lower surface. It was first described by Philippi and Landbeck from Chilian specimens, and in 1872 recognized by Dr. Burmeister as found near the Sierra Tandil and on the Rio Negro.

In April and May this Goose migrates northwards, along the eastern coast, as far as the pampas of Buenos Ayres, the migration ending about one hundred and fifty miles south of Buenos Ayres city. Further south they are at this season of the year excessively abundant in suitable localities. Their great camping-grounds are the valleys of the rivers Negro and Colorado, where they are often so numerous as to denude the low grounds of the tender winter clovers and gra.s.ses, and to cause serious loss to the sheep-breeders. They also visit the cultivated fields to devour the young wheat, and are intelligent enough to distinguish between a real human enemy and the ragged men of straw, miscalled scarecrows, set up by the farmers to frighten them. While committing their depredations they are exceedingly wary and difficult to shoot, but at night, when they congregate by the water-side, they give the sportsman a better chance. I have succeeded in killing as many as five at a shot by stalking them under cover of the darkness; and a more deliciously flavoured game-bird than this Goose I have never tasted.

They are social birds, always going in large flocks, and are very loquacious, the female having a deep _honking_ note, while the male responds with a clear whistling, like the Sanderling's note etherialized.

337. BERNICLA POLIOCEPHALA, Gray.

(ASHY-HEADED GOOSE.)

+Bernicla poliocephala+, _Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S._ 1876, p. 366; _Burmeister, P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 366 (Bahia Blanca); _Scl. P. Z.

S._ 1872, p. 549 (Rio Negro); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1878, p. 400 (Centr. Patagonia). +Chloephaga poliocephala+, _Scl. et Salv.

Nomencl._ p. 128.

_Description._--Head, neck, and scapulars greyish plumbeous; breast and upper back chestnut, banded across with black; abdomen, under wing-coverts, and bend of the wing white; primaries black; secondaries white; greater wing-coverts black, edged with s.h.i.+ning green and tipped with white; lower back and tail black; flanks banded with white and black; crissum chestnut; bill black; feet on the outside yellow, on the inner side brownish black: whole length 240 inches, wing 135, tail 50. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Patagonia, Southern Chili, and Southern Argentina.

This Patagonian Goose migrates northwards in winter, and appears on the Rio Negro and in the Buenos-Ayrean pampas in May, usually in small flocks, but sometimes as many as one or two hundred are seen together.

The extreme limit of their winter migration appears to be about sixty miles south of Buenos Ayres city, on the plains near the river Sanborombon; probably they have before now been driven from this locality by the Duck-shooters, but it was formerly their favourite rendezvous, where they collected in large numbers, though further north scarcely one was ever seen.

Durnford tells us that this Goose is resident on Lake Colguape in the territory of Chupat, and breeds there abundantly.

338. CYGNUS NIGRICOLLIS, Gm.

(BLACK-NECKED SWAN.)

[Plate XVIII.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: CYGNUS NIGRICOLLIS.]

+Cygnus nigricollis+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 512 (Parana); _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 129; _iid. P. Z. S._ 1876, p. 370; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 191 (Buenos Ayres), et 1878, p. 400 (Centr. Patagonia); _Gibson, Ibis_, 1880, p. 33 (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 273 (Entrerios).

_Description._--White; head and neck black; postocular streak and chin white; lores naked; bill plumbeous; cere red; feet pale carneous: whole length 480 inches, wing 175, tail 55. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Argentina, Chili, and Patagonia.

To my perhaps partial mind this species is preeminent for beauty among the Swans, although it is considerably smaller than the bird of the Old World, and does not, it must be admitted, comport itself so majestically. In questions of this kind it is natural for every one to be somewhat bia.s.sed in favour of the things of his own country; but it will be readily admitted by all, I think, that the black-necked bird is one of three species greatly surpa.s.sing all others of this genus in beauty--the other two being, of course, the domesticated Swan of Europe and the Australian Black Swan (perhaps the most graceful bird on the globe).

This Swan is very abundant on the pampas of Buenos Ayres and in Patagonia, and ranges south to the Magellan Straits and the Falklands.

As a rule they are seen in small flocks, but sometimes as many as two or three hundred congregate together. They are heavy birds and rise with difficulty, and fly rapidly and with great violence, like all heavy-bodied short-winged species; but in no other very large bird with which I am acquainted do the wings produce so loud a rus.h.i.+ng sound. In quiet places the beating of their wings can be heard distinctly when the birds are no longer in sight, although, owing to their large size, the eye can follow them very far. Gauchos sometimes capture them by suddenly charging down the wind upon them, uttering loud shouts which greatly terrify the birds, and when they attempt to rise with the wind they only flap along the ground and are easily knocked over. A Gaucho of my acquaintance one day caught three out of a flock of six in this way; but a very strong wind favoured him, and the birds were at some distance from the water, and allowed him to come near before making the sudden charge. As a rule, they are seen on the water, and when on land they keep very close to the margin.

According to Mr. Gibson, who has observed their breeding-habits, they begin to nest in July--just after the winter solstice. The nest is always placed among thick rushes growing in deep water, and the Swan invariably swims to and from her nest. It is built up from the bottom of the swamp, sometimes through four or five feet of water, and rises a foot and a half above the surface. The top of the nest measures about two feet across, with a slight hollow for the eggs, which are cream-coloured and have a smooth glossy sh.e.l.l. The number varies from three to five, and on one occasion six were found. Mr. Gibson has seen the parent bird swimming from the nest with the young on her back.

Our figure of this species (Plate XVIII.) is taken from the specimen now living in the Zoological Society's Gardens.

339. COSCOROBA CANDIDA (Vieill.).

(COSCOROBA SWAN.)

+Cygnus coscoroba+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 512 (Parana); _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 129; _iid. P. Z. S._ 1876, p. 371; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 191 (Buenos Ayres), et 1878, p. 400 (Centr. Patagonia); _Gibson, Ibis_, 1880, p. 36 (Buenos Ayres).

+Coscoroba Candida+, _Reichenb. Nat. Syst._ p. x.

_Description._--White; tips of the primaries black; bill coral-red; feet dull red: whole length 400 inches, wing 175, tail 58.

_Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Patagonia, Chili, Argentina, and Paraguay.

This Swan is considerably smaller than the black-necked species, and also inferior in beauty on account of its shorter neck. It is, nevertheless, a very handsome bird, being entirely of a pure white colour except the tips of the primaries, which are black. The beak and legs are bright rosy red. In its habits, language, and flight it also differs much from _Cygnus nigricollis_, and the country people call it _Ganso_ (Goose), probably on account of its goose-like habit of sometimes feeding away from the water, or because its flesh has the flavour of Wild Goose. As a rule they go in small parties of five or six individuals, but sometimes flocks numbering two or three hundred are seen in the cold season. Their migrations are very irregular, and sometimes they are excessively abundant in a district one year and absent from it the next. When disturbed they utter a loud musical trumpeting cry, in three notes, the last with a falling inflection; and their wings being much longer proportionately than in the black-necked species, they rise with greater ease and have a much freer and an almost soundless flight.

Concerning their breeding-habits, Mr. Gibson observes that the nest is usually placed on the ground at some distance from the water. It is about a foot and a half high, made of mud and rushes; the hollow, which is rather deep, is lined with dry gra.s.s.

The eggs are eight or nine in number; smooth, white, and rounder than those of _Cygnus nigricollis_.

340. DENDROCYGNA FULVA (Gm.).

(FULVOUS TREE-DUCK.)

+Dendrocygna fulva+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 514 (Parana); _id. P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 367; _Scl. et. Salv. Nomencl._ p. 129; _iid. P. Z. S._ 1869, p. 635 (Buenos Ayres), et 1876, p. 372; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1878, p. 63 (Buenos Ayres); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 625 (Buenos Ayres).

_Description._--Chestnut-red, top of head darker, with black line down the nape; back black, on the upper portion banded with chestnut; wings and tail black; lesser wing-coverts dark chestnut; upper tail-coverts white; flank-plumes elongated, chestnut, banded with black and white; bill and feet black: whole length 180 inches, wing 85, tail 20. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Mexico and South America.

This Duck, the well-known _Pato silvon_ (Whistling Duck) of the eastern Argentine country, is found abundantly along the Plata and the great streams flowing into it, and northwards to Paraguay. Along this great waterway it is to some extent a migratory species, appearing in spring in Buenos Ayres in very large numbers, to breed in the littoral marshes and also on the pampas. They migrate princ.i.p.ally by night, and do not fly in long trains and phalanxes like other Ducks, but in a cloud; and when they migrate in spring and autumn the shrill confused clangour of their many voices is heard from the darkness overhead by dwellers in the Argentine capital; for the Ducks, following the eastern sh.o.r.e of the sea-like river, pa.s.s over that city on their journey. Northwards this Duck extends to Central Brazil; from the northern half of the southern continent and from Central America it is absent, but it reappears in Mexico. Commenting on these facts Messrs. Sclater and Salvin write:--"Singular as this distribution is, it is still more remarkable when we consider that there appear to exist no tangible grounds for separating the American bird from that called _D. major_ by Jerdon, which ranges throughout the peninsula of India and is also found in Madagascar!"

The Whistling Duck, in its chestnut and fulvous plumage, is a handsome bird and somewhat singular in appearance, especially when seen in a large body on the ground. When out of the water they crowd close together, and when disturbed stand up craning their necks, looking strangely tall on their long blue legs. While thus watching an intruder they are silent, and the sudden ringing chorus of whistling voices into which they burst at the moment of rising has a curious effect.

So extremely social are these Ducks that even when breeding they keep together in large flocks. The nest is made of stems and leaves, on the water among the reeds and aquatic plants; and sometimes large numbers of nests are found close together, as in a gullery. The eggs are pure white, and each bird lays, I believe, ten or twelve, but I am not sure about the exact number; and I have so frequently found from twenty to thirty eggs in a nest that I am pretty sure that it is a common thing for two or three females to occupy one nest.