(CHINGOLO SONG-SPARROW.)
+Zonotrichia pileata+, _Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S._ 1868, p. 139, _iid.
Nomencl._ p. 31; _Salvin, Ibis_, 1880, p. 355 (Salta); _Gibson,
Ibis_, 1880, p. 28 (Buenos Ayres); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 600
(Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ viii. p. 131
(Concepcion). +Zonotrichia matutina+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii.
p. 486.
_Description._--Above dusky grey, striped with blackish brown; the
top of the head from the bill to the nape grey; a whitish stripe
from the eye to the nape; between the stripe and the grey on the
crown black; a narrow chestnut ring round the neck, widening to a
large patch on the sides of the chest, the patch bordered with black
on its lower part; beneath, throat white; breast and belly ashy
white; bill and feet light horn-colour: whole length 5·7 inches,
wing 2·8, tail 2·2. _Female_ similar, but duller in colour and a
trifle smaller.
_Hab._ Central and South America.
The common, familiar, favourite Sparrow over a large portion of the
South-American continent is the "_Chingolo_." Darwin says that "it
prefers inhabited places, but has not attained the air of domestication
of the English Sparrow, which bird in habits and general appearance it
resembles." As it breeds in the fields on the ground, it can never be
equally familiar with man, but in appearance it is like a refined copy
of the burly English Sparrow--more delicately tinted, the throat being
chestnut instead of black; the head smaller and better proportioned, and
with the added distinction of a crest, which it lowers and elevates at
all angles to express the various feelings affecting its busy little
mind.
On the treeless desert pampas the Chingolo is rarely seen, but wherever
man builds a house and plants a tree there it comes to keep him company,
while in cultivated and thickly settled districts it is excessively
abundant, and about Buenos Ayres it literally swarms in the fields and
plantations. They are not, strictly speaking, gregarious, but where food
attracts them, or the shelter of a hedge on a cold windy day, thousands
are frequently seen congregated in one place; when disturbed, however,
these accidental flocks immediately break up, the birds scattering
abroad in different directions.
The Chingolo is a very constant singer, his song beginning with the dawn
of day in spring, and continuing until evening; it is very short, being
composed of a chipping prelude and four long notes, three uttered in a
clear thin voice, the last a trill. This song is repeated at brief
intervals, as the bird sits motionless, perched on the disc of a
thistle-flower, the summit of a stalk, or other elevation; and where the
Chingolos are very abundant, the whole air, on a bright spring morning,
is alive with their delicate melody; only one must pause and listen
before he is aware of it, otherwise it will escape him, owing to its
thin ethereal character, the multitudinous notes not mingling but
floating away, as it were, detached and scattered, mere gossamer webs of
sound that very faintly impress the sense. They also sing frequently at
night, and in that dark silent time their little melody sounds strangely
sweet and expressive. The song varies greatly in different districts;
thus, in Bahia Blanca it is without the long trill at the end, and in
other localities I have found it vary in other ways.
The Chingolos pair about the end of September, and at that time their
battles are frequent, as they are very pugnacious. The nest is made
under a thistle or tuft of grass, in a depression in the soil, so that
the top of the nest is on a level with the surface of the ground. The
nest is mostly made and lined with horse-hair, the eggs four or five,
pale blue, and thickly spotted with dull brown. Sometimes, though very
rarely, a nest is found in a bush or on a stump several feet above the
ground. Two broods are reared in the season, the first in October, the
second in February or March. I have known these birds to breed in April
and May, and these very late nests escape the infliction of parasitical
eggs. When the nest is approached or taken, the Chingolos utter no
sound, but sit in dumb anxiety, with tail expanded and drooping wings.