In Patagonia I first observed this Ibis roosting on tall trees; and, according to Azara, it possesses the same habit in Paraguay. He says that all the flocks within a circuit of some leagues resort to one spot to sleep, and prefer tall dead trees bordering on the water, and if there is only one suitable tree all the birds crowd on to it, and in the morning scatter, each family or pair flying away to spend the day in its customary feeding-ground.
The egg obtained by Dr. Cunningham at Elizabeth Island is thus described by Prof. Newton (Ibis, 1870, p. 502)[5]:--"Dull surface of a pale greenish white with engrained blotches (mostly small) of neutral tint, and some few blotches, spots, and specks of dull deep brown; towards the larger end some hair-like streaks of a lighter shade of the same, and so far having an Ibidine or Plataleine character."
[5] See also figure, P. Z. S. 1871, pl. iv. fig. 8.
329. HARPIPRION CaeRULESCENS (Vieill.).
(PLUMBEOUS IBIS.)
+Harpiprion caerulescens+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 127; _Gibson, Ibis_, 1880, p. 159 (Buenos Ayres). +Molybdophanes caerulescens+, _Elliot, P. Z. S._ 1877, p. 503. +Ibis plumbea+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 510 (Entrerios). +Ibis caerulescens+, _Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S._ 1869, p. 635 (Buenos Ayres).
_Description._--A white bar commencing above and behind the eye covers the forehead; top of head and lengthened nuchal crest dark brown, with a slight greenish tinge; throat and neck covered with long narrow feathers, light brown, in certain lights having a pinkish tinge; upper parts pale bronzy green; wings like the back, in some lights the feathers have a silvery gloss; primaries deep blue, greenish towards the edges of the outer webs; tail dark green; entire underparts brownish grey, with light pink reflexions in certain lights; bill black; feet yellow: whole length 330 inches, wing 155, tail 75, bill 65. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ South-east Brazil and Argentina.
This n.o.ble Ibis ranges from Brazil, south of the Amazons, to the pampas of Buenos Ayres. It is a bird of the marshes, nowhere abundant, and yet is exceedingly well known to most people in the Argentine country: it would be difficult indeed to overlook a species possessing so peculiar and powerful a voice. In the vernacular it is called _Vanduria_, with the addition of _aplomado_, or _barroso_, or _de las lagunas_, to distinguish it from the Winter Vanduria. The word is also frequently spelt _Manduria_ or _Banduria_, but it does not come from _Bandada_ (flock), as Mr. Barrows imagines when he gives this vernacular name to the Glossy Ibis; but from the Spanish stringed instrument called Vanduria. Possibly the instrument is obsolete now; not so the word, however, and it is sometimes used by the poets, instead of "harp" or "lyre," to symbolize poetic inspiration. Thus Iriarte:--
"Atencion! que la vanduria he templado."
If one could get a banjo with bra.s.s strings so big that it could be heard a mile and a half away, a dozen strokes dealt in swift succession on one string would produce a sound resembling the call of this Ibis--a voice of the desolate marshes, which competes in power with the outrageous human-like shrieks of the Ypecaha Rail, the long resounding wails of the Crazy Widow or Courlan, and the morning song of the Crested Screamer.
The Vanduria is usually seen singly or in pairs, and sometimes, but rarely, in small companies of half a dozen birds. In its habits it is like a Tantalus, wading in the shallow water of the marshes, and devouring eels, frogs, fish, &c. After examining the well-filled stomachs of a few individuals, one is strongly tempted to believe that the beautiful long beak of this Ibis has "forgotten its cunning" as a probe. At intervals in the daytime it utters, standing on the ground, its resonant metallic cry. It is wary and has a strong easy flight, and is a great wanderer, but I am not able to say whether it possesses a regular migration or not.
The celebrated naturalist Natterer procured specimens of this Ibis in the lagoons of Caicara, in the Brazilian Province of Matogrosso, in September and November, 1825, but it is not mentioned by general writers on the birds of S.E. Brazil.
330. PHIMOSUS INFUSCATUS (Licht.).
(WHISPERING IBIS.)
+Ibis infuscata+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 511 (Rio Parana).
+Phimosus infuscatus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 127; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1878, p. 63 (Buenos Ayres); _Salv. Ibis_, 1880, p. 363 (Salta); _Elliot, P. Z. S._ 1877, p. 495.
_Description._--Plumage dark bronzy green, glossed with purple; fore part and sides of head and neck naked, red; bill and feet red: whole length 240 inches, wing 115, tail 60, bill 52. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ South America from Colombia south to Argentina.
Of this Ibis, which ranges from Colombia to the Argentine Republic, a few individuals come as far south as the pampas of Buenos Ayres.
The fore part of the head and throat being unfeathered, suggested to Azara the name of _Afeytado_, or "shaved," but about its habits he has nothing to say, nor does he mention its peculiar voice, or, perhaps it would be more correct to say, its want of voice; for it seems quite silent unless one comes near to it and listens very intently, when he will be able to hear little sigh-like puffs of sound as the bird flies away. It seems strange that this member of a loquacious loud-voiced family should be reduced to speak, as it were, in whispers!
On two or three occasions I have seen as many as half a dozen individuals together; at other times I have seen one or two a.s.sociating with the Glossy Ibis.
Azara"s name "Shaved" Ibis seems well enough in Spanish, just as his "Throat-cut" for a Starling with a scarlet throat does not strike one as at all shocking in that language; but for an English name I fancy that "Whispering Ibis," from the whisper-like sound the bird emits, would be more suitable, or, at all events, better sounding.
It is possible that two races of this Ibis exist on the South-American continent; for in Brazil and further north it is said to have a loud cry, uttered when taking wing, as in the case of the Glossy Ibis; and one of its native names in the tropics--_curri-curri_--is said to be an imitation of its usual note.
331. AJAJA ROSEA, Reichenb.
(ROSEATE SPOONBILL.)
+Platalea ajaja+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 511; _Scl. et Salv.
P. Z. S._ 1868, p. 145; _iid. Nomencl._ p. 127; _Hudson, P. Z.
S._ 1876, p. 15 (Buenos Ayres); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 190 (Buenos Ayres); _Gibson, Ibis_, 1880, p. 156 (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 272 (Entrerios, Bahia Blanca). +Ajaja rosea+, _Baird, Brew., et Ridgw. Water-B. N. A._ i. p. 102.
_Description._--Head bare; neck, back, and breast white; tail orange-buff, with the shafts deep pink and inner webs stained with pink; rest of plumage pale rose-pink; lesser wing-coverts and upper and lower tail-coverts intense carmine; neck with a tuft of twisted plumes, light carmine; sides of breast pale creamy buff; bill yellowish grey; head greenish, s.p.a.ce round the eye and gular sac orange; feet pale pink: whole length 300 inches, wing 150, tail 50. _Female_ similar. _Young_ with the head completely feathered.
_Hab._ North and South America.
The Roseate Spoonbill is found in both Americas and ranges south to the Straits of Magellan, but in Patagonia it is, I think, rare, for on the Rio Negro I did not meet with it. On the pampas it is abundant, and I have been told that it breeds in the marshes there, but I have never been able to find a nest. It is usually seen in small flocks of from half a dozen to twenty individuals, which all feed near together, wading up to their knees and sweeping their long flat beaks from side to side as they advance. An English acquaintance of mine kept one of these birds as a pet on his estancia for seven years. It was very docile, and would spend the day roaming about the grounds, a.s.sociating with the poultry, but invariably presented itself in the dining-room at meal-time, where it would take its station at one end of the table, and dexterously catch in its beak any morsel thrown to it.
I believe that more than one species of Spoonbill inhabits South America, and that the common Spoonbill of the pampas is a distinct species from the well-known Ajaja. Some remarks of mine on this subject were printed in the "Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London"
about nine years ago; but I find that I am alone amongst ornithologists in this belief; I can, therefore, only repeat here what I have said before, and leave the question for time to decide.
The general belief is that the pale-plumaged birds, with feathered heads and black eyes (the Roseate Spoonbill having crimson eyes), and without the bright wing-spots, the tuft on the breast, h.o.r.n.y excrescences on the beak, and other marks, are only immature birds. Now, for one bird with all these characteristic marks of the true _Platalea ajaja_, which has a yellow tail, we meet on the pampas with not less than two to three hundred examples of the pale-plumaged bird without any traces of such marks and with a rose-coloured tail; and the disparity in number between mature and immature birds of one species could not well be so great as that. I have shot one immature specimen of the true Ajaja--so immature that it seemed not long out of the nest; but the head was bare of feathers, and it had the k.n.o.bs on the upper mandible, only they were so soft that they could be indented with the nail of the finger. Azara also mentions an immature bird which he obtained, but he does not say that the head was feathered; and even this negative evidence goes a great way, since it would have been very unlike him to see a Spoonbill with a feathered head and otherwise unlike _Ajaja rosea_, and not describe it as a distinct species.
There are also anatomical differences between the two birds; the pale-plumaged species having an ordinary trachea, while _A. rosea_ has a very curiously-formed trachea, unlike that of any other bird, which has been described by Garrod as follows:--
"The trachea is simple, straight, of uniform calibre, and peculiarly short, extending only two thirds down the length of the neck, where the uncomplicated syrinx is situated and the bifurcation of the bronchi occurs. The usual pair of muscles, one on each side, runs to this syrinx from above, and ceases there. The bronchi are fusiformly dilated at their commencement, where the rings which encircle them are not complete, a membrane taking their place in that portion of each tube which is contiguous to its opposite neighbour. Each bronchus, lower down, is composed of complete cartilaginous rings."
[Ill.u.s.tration: Trachea of _Ajaja rosea_.--_a._ Trachea. _b._ Syrinx.
_d._ sophagus. _e._ Cervical muscles. _r.b._ Right bronchus.
_l.b._ Left bronchus.
(From P. Z. S. 1875, p. 300.)]
The woodcut of this curious structure is here reproduced by the kind permission of the Zoological Society. It is much to be wished that some one living in the Argentine Republic would devote himself to the further investigation of the history of this interesting bird, and settle the question whether there is more than one species of Argentine Spoonbill.
To conclude, I may mention that the pet bird my friend kept was of the pale-plumaged species, and never lost the feathers from its head, nor did it acquire any of the characteristic marks of _P. ajaja_.
Fam. x.x.xVIII. PHNICOPTERIDae, or FLAMINGOES.
The very peculiar and isolated type of Flamingo is found in both the Old and New Worlds, and is, no doubt, of great antiquity. In the Neotropical Region three species of Flamingo are now known to occur, one of which is well known in the Argentine Provinces. Of the other two (_Phnicopterus andinus_ and _P. jamesi_[6]), which inhabit the Andes of Chili and Bolivia, one has also been ascertained to occur within the northern frontiers of the Argentine Republic. Both these last-named species belong to the three-toed section of the genus (_Phnicoparra_). In _P. ignipalliatus_ the hind toe is present.
[6] _Cf._ Sclater, P. Z. S. 1886, p. 399.
332. PHNICOPTERUS IGNIPALLIATUS, Geoffr. et d"Orb.
(ARGENTINE FLAMINGO.)
+Phnicopterus ignipalliatus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 512 (Mendoza, Parana, Rosario, Buenos Ayres); _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 127; _iid, P. Z. S._ 1868, p. 145 (Buenos Ayres); _Scl. P. Z.
S._ 1872, p. 549 (Rio Negro); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 41, et 1878, p. 400 (Patagonia); _Gibson, Ibis_, 1880, p. 156 (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 272 (Pampas).