(PATAGONIAN PARROT.)
+Conurus patagonus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 441; _Scl. et
Salv. Nomencl._ p. 111; _Scl. P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 549 (Rio Negro),
et 1873, p. 761; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 186 (Buenos Ayres),
et 1878, p. 396 (Chupat); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 620
(Catamarca); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 28 (Bahia Blanca). +Conurus
patachonicus+, _Darwin, Zool. Beagle_, iii. p. 113 (Bahia
Blanca).
_Description._--Above dark olive-green, forehead darker; wings edged
with bluish, lower back yellow: beneath olive-green, darker on
throat; band across the neck whitish; belly yellow, with a large
patch in the middle and the thighs red: whole length 18·0 inches,
wing 9·2, tail 10·5. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ Argentina and Patagonia.
This Parrot, called in La Plata the Bank- or Burrowing-Parrot, from its
nesting-habits, is the only member of its order found so far south as
Patagonia. In habits it differs somewhat from most of its congeners,
and it may be regarded, I think, as one of those species which are
dying out--possibly owing to the altered conditions resulting from the
settlement of the country by Europeans. It was formerly abundant on the
southern pampas of La Plata, and being partially migratory its flocks
ranged in winter to Buenos Ayres, and even as far north as the Paraná
river. When, as a child, I lived near the capital city (Buenos Ayres),
I remember that I always looked forward with the greatest delight to
the appearance of these noisy dark-green winter visitors. Now they
are rarely seen within a hundred miles of Buenos Ayres; and I have
been informed by old gauchos that half a century before my time they
invariably appeared in immense flocks in winter, and have since
gradually diminished in numbers, until now in that district the
Bank-Parrot is almost a thing of the past. Two or three hundred miles
south of Buenos Ayres city they are still to be met with in rather large
flocks, and have a few ancient breeding-places, to which they cling very
tenaciously. Where there are trees or bushes on their feeding-ground
they perch on them; they also gather the berries of the _Empetrum
rubrum_ and other fruits from the bushes; but they feed principally on
the ground, and, while the flock feeds, one bird is invariably perched
on a stalk or other elevation to act as sentinel. They are partial
to the seeds of the giant thistle (_Carduus mariana_), and the wild
pumpkin, and to get at the latter they bite the hard dry shell into
pieces with their powerful beaks. When a horseman appears in the
distance they rise in a compact flock, with loud harsh screams, and
hover above him, within a very few yards of his head, their combined
dissonant voices producing an uproar which is only equalled in that
pandemonium of noises, the Parrot-house in the Zoological Gardens of
London. They are extremely social, so much so that their flocks do not
break up in the breeding-season; and their burrows, which they excavate
in a perpendicular cliff or high bank, are placed close together;
so that when the gauchos take the young birds--esteemed a great
delicacy--the person who ventures down by means of a rope attached to
his waist is able to rifle a whole colony. The burrow is three to five
feet deep, and four white eggs are deposited on a slight nest at the
extremity. I have only tasted the old birds, and found their flesh very
bitter, scarcely palatable.
The natives say that this species cannot be taught to speak; and it
is certain that the few individuals I have seen tame were unable to
articulate.
Doubtless these Parrots were originally stray colonists from the
tropics, although now resident in so cold a country as Patagonia. When
viewed closely, one would also imagine that they must at one time have
been brilliant-plumaged birds; but either natural selection, or the
direct effect of a bleak climate, has given a sombre shade to their
colours--green, blue, yellow, and crimson; and when seen flying at a
distance, or in cloudy weather, they look as dark as crows.