Volume I Part 7 (1/2)

_Description._--Above glossy dark steel-blue; lower back and rump cinnamon-rufous; the upper tail-coverts brown, with grey margins; wings black; tail black, with greenish gloss; crown steel-blue; forehead sandy buff; cheeks and sides of face chestnut, spreading to the sides of the hind neck; chin chestnut; the lower throat steel-blue; fore neck, chest, and sides of body and flanks light ashy brown; centre of breast and abdomen white, tinged with brown; under tail-coverts, also under wing-coverts and axillaries, ashy brown: total length 53 inches, wing 435, tail 205. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ South America.

This species does not breed in Buenos Ayres, and is only seen there in spring, flying south or south-west, and again in much larger numbers on its return journey in autumn. On the Rio Negro, in Patagonia, I did not meet with it, and suppose its summer resort must be south of that locality; and, judging from the immense numbers visible in some seasons, I should think that they must, in their breeding-place in Patagonia, occupy a very extensive area. They do not seem to be as regular in their movements as other Swallows here; some years I have observed them pa.s.sing singly or in small parties during the entire hot season: usually they begin to appear, flying north, in February; but in some years not until after the middle of March. They are not seen pa.s.sing with a rapid flight in close flocks, but straggle about, hawking after flies: first one bird pa.s.sing, then two or three, and a minute or two later half a dozen, and so on for a greater part of the day. So long as the weather continues warm they journey in this leisurely manner; but I have known them to continue pa.s.sing till April, after all the summer migrants had left us, and these late birds flew by with great speed in small close flocks, directly north, as if their flight had been guided by the magnetic needle.

While flying this species continually utters sharp twitterings and grinding and squealing notes of various lengths.

29. TACHYCINETA LEUCORRHOA (Vieill.).

(WHITE-RUMPED SWALLOW.)

+Hirundo leucorrhoa+, _Hudson, P. Z. S._ 1872, pp. 606, 845 (Buenos Ayres); _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 14; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 32 (Chupat), 1878, p. 392 (Central Patagonia); _White, P. Z.

S._ 1882, p. 596 (Corrientes); _Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ viii. p. 89 (Concepcion). +Cotyle leucorrhoea+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 478 (Parana). +Tachycineta leucorrhous+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ x. p. 114.

_Description._--Above glossy dark green; rump white; quills black, washed with green; upper tail-coverts dark green; tail-feathers black with greenish gloss; base of forehead white, extending a little backward over the lores; cheeks and whole under surface white; flanks and sides washed with smoky brown; axillaries and under tail-coverts pale smoky brown; bill and feet black: total length 55 inches, wing 445, tail 20. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.

This is the most abundant and best known of our Swallows; a pretty bird in its glossy coat of deep green, and rump and under surface snowy white; exceedingly restless in its disposition, quick and graceful in its motions; social, quarrelsome, garrulous, with a not unmusical song, beginning with long, soft, tremulous notes, followed by others shorter and more hurried, and sinking to a murmur. They are the last of all our migrants to leave us in autumn, and invariably reappear in small numbers about the houses on every warm day in winter. Probably many individuals in Buenos Ayres remain through the winter in sheltered situations, to scatter over the surrounding country whenever there comes a warm bright day. I once saw three together, skimming over the plains, on one of the coldest days I ever experienced on the pampas, the thermometer having stood at 29 Fahr. that morning.

Further south their migration is more strict; and on the Rio Negro, in Patagonia, from March to August I did not meet with a single individual.

In Buenos Ayres the autumnal migration of the Hirundines begins about the middle of February, and from that date vast numbers of this Swallow are seen travelling north, and, in some seasons, they continue pa.s.sing for over a month. One autumn, in April, several days after the Swallows had all disappeared, flocks of the Common Swallow began again to appear flying north, and for ten days afterwards they continued to pa.s.s in large numbers. They would stoop to dip themselves in a pool where I observed them, and then alight on the reeds and bushes to rest, and appeared quite tired with their journey, rising reluctantly when approached, and some allowing me to stand almost within arm's length of them without stirring. I had never before observed any later or supplementary migration like this; for, as a rule, the causes which in some years delay the departure of birds seems to affect them all alike.

Possibly these late birds come from some remote district, where exceptionally cold weather had r.e.t.a.r.ded breeding-operations.

The White-rumped Swallow sometimes lays in a tree, in the large nest, previously abandoned, of the Lenatero (_Anumbius acuticaudatus_).

Its favourite site is, however, a hole in a wall, sheltered by the overhanging tiles or thatch; for though it does not go much into towns, as Azara has remarked, it is very domestic, and there is not a house on the pampas, however humble it be, but some of these birds are about it, sportively skimming above the roof, or curiously peering under the eaves, and incessantly uttering their gurgling happy notes.

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 c.h.i.n.ks 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. The excited twittering, the incessant striving of two birds to alight on the same square inch of wall, the perpetual chases they lead each other round and round the house, always ending exactly where they began, tell of clas.h.i.+ng interests and of great unreasonableness on the part of some amongst them. By-and-by the quarrel a.s.sumes a more serious aspect; friends and neighbours have apparently intervened in vain; all the arguments of which Swallows are capable have been exhausted, and, a compromise of claims being more impossible than ever, fighting begins.

Most vindictively do the little things clutch each other and fall to the earth twenty times an hour, where they often remain struggling for a long time, heedless of the screams of alarm their fellows set up above them; for often, while they thus lie on the ground punis.h.i.+ng each other, they fall an easy prey to some wily p.u.s.s.y who has made herself acquainted with their habits.

When these feuds are finally settled, they address themselves diligently to the great work and build a rather big nest. They are not neat or skilful workers, but merely stuff a great quant.i.ty of straw and other light materials into the breeding-hole, and line the nest with feathers and horsehair. On this soft but disorderly bed the female lays from five to seven pure white eggs.

All those species that are liable at any time to become the victims of raptorial birds are very much beholden to this Swallow, as he is the most vigilant sentinel they possess. When the hurrying Falcon is still far off, and the other birds unsuspicious of his approach, the Swallows suddenly rush up into the sky with a wild rapid flight to announce the evil tidings with distracted screams. The alarm spreads swift as light through the feathered tribes, which, on all sides, are in terrified commotion, crouching in the gra.s.s, plunging into thickets, or mounting upwards to escape by flight. I have often wondered at this, since this swift-winged and quick-doubling little bird is the least likely to fall a prey himself.

They possess another habit very grateful to the mind of every early riser. At the first indication of dawn, and before any other wild bird has broken the profound silence of night, mult.i.tudes of this Swallow, as if at the signal of a leader, begin their singing and twittering, at the same time mounting upwards into the quiet dusky sky. Their notes at this hour differ from the hurried twittering uttered during the day, being softer and more prolonged, and, sounding far up in the sky from so many throats, the concert has a very charming effect, and seems in harmony with the shadowy morning twilight.

30. ATTICORA CYANOLEUCA (Vieill.).

(BANK-SWALLOW.)

+Atticora cyanoleuca+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 479; _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 14; _Hudson, P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 844 (Buenos Ayres); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1876, p. 158 (Buenos Ayres), 1877, p. 32 (Chupat), p. 170 (Buenos Ayres), 1878, p. 392 (Central Patagonia); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 596 (Catamarca); _Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ viii. p. 90 (Concepcion, Bahia Blanca); _Sharpe, Cat. B._ x. p. 186.

_Description._--Above dark glossy blue; quills and tail-feathers black; cheeks and under surface of body pure white, the sides of the neck blue, descending in a half-crescent on the sides of the chest; sides of body and flanks brown; under tail-coverts black; bill and feet black: total length 47 inches, wing 405, tail 22. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Central and South America.