Volume Ii Part 40 (1/2)

(THICK-BILLED GREBE.)

+Podilymbus podiceps+, _Baird, Brew., et Ridgw. Water-B. N. A._ ii.

p. 440; _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 473.

_Description._--Above dirty brown, varied with blackish; wings cinereous with white tips to some of the secondaries: beneath white, sprinkled with greyish on the breast and sides; chin and throat black; bill short, compressed, plumbeous, crossed by a black band; feet black: whole length 120 inches, wing 50, tail 10. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ North and South America.

The Thick-billed Grebe extends all through America, from Canada down to Patagonia and Chili. It does not seem to have been noticed in the Argentine Republic except by Mr. Withington, who sends us a single specimen from the Lomas de Zamora, near Buenos Ayres.

A second and larger species of this genus (_P. antarcticus_) occurs on the western side of America from Guatemala to Chili.

Order XVIII. IMPENNES.

Fam. LII. APTENODYTIDae, or PENGUINS.

The Penguins are a peculiar group of oceanic birds which differ essentially from all other birds in the construction of their wings and feet, and should certainly form an Order apart. They are denizens of the Antarctic sea-sh.o.r.es and islands, but in the Pacific go as far north as the Galapagos. On the sh.o.r.es and islands of South America nine species occur, one of which has been met with within our limits.

424. SPHENISCUS MAGELLANICUS (Forst.).

(JACKa.s.s PENGUIN.)

+Spheniscus magellanicus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 151; _Scl.

Zool. Chall. Exp._ pt. viii. (Birds), p. 125, pl. xxviii.

+Aptenodytes demersa+, _Abbott, Ibis_, 1860, p. 336.

_Description._--Above bluish black; broad superciliary stripe descending on each side of the neck white: beneath white; throat and sides of neck, and two breast-bands, the lower narrower and produced down the sides of the belly, black; bill and feet plumbeous: whole length 160 inches, wing 75, tail 20.

_Hab._ Coasts of Antarctic America and Falkland Islands.

At the mouth of the Rio Negro Hudson once picked up a specimen of a Penguin, believed to have been of this species, which had apparently just met its death by some accident. The range of this bird, moreover, appears to extend much further north, as it is well known to the Gauchos along the coast, who call it ”_Pajaro Nino_” (bird boy), from its fancied resemblance to a small human being when it stands erect on the sh.o.r.e.

Darwin (Nat. Voy. chap. iii.) speaks of having seen numerous Penguins in the estuary of the Rio de la Plata, when approaching Monte Video in the 'Beagle,' in July 1832; and Graf v. Berlepsch tells me he has an imperfect specimen of _Spheniscus magellanicus_ from the coast of Rio Grande do Sul, where it was picked up dead.

The ”Jacka.s.s Penguin” is a well-known species in the Falkland Islands, to which it resorts in thousands for the purpose of breeding. Capt.

Abbott tells us it arrives at the latter end of September and commences laying in its breeding-holes, almost to a day, on October 17. Some of these birds, however, are found on the sh.o.r.es of the Falkland Islands throughout the year.

Order XIX. CRYPTURI.

Fam. LIII. TINAMIDae, or TINAMOUS.

The Tinamous const.i.tute one of the most singular and characteristic types of the Neotropical avifauna. Until late years they were usually a.s.sociated with the Gallinae or Game Birds, but differ very widely from them in the conformation of the skull and in other essential points of structure, and are now generally regarded as forming an Order of their own, to be placed at the base of the series of Carinatae. About forty species of Tinamous are known, of which eight occur within our limits.

425. CRYPTURUS OBSOLETUS, Temm.