(FIREWOOD-GATHERER.)
+Anumbius acuticaudatus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 467 (Paraná,
Mendoza); _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 64; _Hudson, P. Z. S._
1874, p. 159 (Buenos Ayres); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 181
(Buenos Ayres); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 612 (Buenos Ayres);
_Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ viii. p. 211 (Entrerios).
_Description._--Above earthy brown, forehead chestnut, superciliaries
white, head, neck, and back marked with black striations; primaries
blackish, secondaries pale chestnut-brown; tail black, all the
feathers except the middle pair broadly tipped with cream-colour;
beneath pale ochraceous brown, white on the throat, the white
bordered on each side by numerous small black spots; bill and feet
pale horn-colour: whole length 8·3 inches, wing 3·6, tail 3·7.
_Female_ similar.
_Hab._ Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay.
This is a common and very well-known species throughout the Argentine
country and Patagonia, also in Uruguay and Paraguay, and is variously
called _Espinero_ (Thorn-bird), _Tiru-riru_, in imitation of its note,
and _Añumbi_ (the Guarani name); but its best known name is _Leñatero_,
or "Firewood-Gatherer," from the quantity of sticks which it collects
for building-purposes.
The Firewood-Gatherer is a resident in Argentina, and pairs for life.
Sometimes the young birds remain with their parents for a period of
three or four months, all the family going about and feeding in company,
and roosting together in the old nest. The nest and the tree where it
is placed are a favourite resort all the year round. Here the birds sit
perched a great deal, and repeat at intervals a song or call, composed
of four or five loud ticking chirps, followed by a long trilling note.
They feed exclusively on the ground, where they creep about, carrying
the body horizontally and intently searching for insects. When
disturbed, they hurry to their usual refuge, rapidly beating their very
feeble wings, and expanding the broad acuminated tail like a fan. When
the male and female meet at their nest, after a brief separation, they
sing their notes in concert, as if rejoicing over their safe reunion;
but they seldom separate, and Azara says that when one incubates, the
other sits at the entrance to the nest, and that when one returns to the
nest with food for the young the other accompanies it, though it has
found nothing to carry.
To build, the _Añumbi_ makes choice of an isolated tree in an open
situation, and prefers a dwarf tree with very scanty foliage; for small
projecting twigs and leaves hinder the worker when carrying up sticks.
This is a most laborious operation, as the sticks are large and the
bird's flight is feeble. If the tree is to its liking, it matters
not how much exposed to the winds it may be, or how close to a human
habitation, for the bird is utterly unconcerned by the presence of man.
I have frequently seen a nest in a shade or ornamental tree within ten
yards of the main entrance to a house; and I have also seen several
on the tall upright stakes of a horse-corral, and the birds working
quietly, with a herd of half-wild horses rushing round the enclosure
beneath them, pursued by the men with lassos. The bird uses large sticks
for building, and drops a great many; frequently as much fallen material
as would fill a barrow lies under the tree. The fallen stick is not
picked up again, as the bird could not rise vertically with its load,
and is not intelligent enough, I suppose, to recover the fallen stick,
and to carry it away thirty yards from the tree and then rise obliquely.
It consequently goes far afield in quest of a fresh one, and having got
one to its liking, carefully takes it up exactly by the middle, and,
carrying it like a balancing-pole, returns to the nest, where, if one
end happens to hit against a projecting twig, it drops like the first.
The bird is not discouraged, but, after a brief interview with its mate,
flies cheerfully away to gather more wood.
Durnford writes wonderingly of the partiality for building in poplar
trees shown by this bird in Buenos Ayres, and says that in a tall tree
the nest is sometimes placed sixty or seventy feet above the ground, and
that the bird almost invariably rises with a stick at such a distance
from the tree as to be able just to make the nest, but that sometimes
failing it alights further down, and then climbs up the twigs with its
stick. He attributes the choice of the tall poplar to _ambition_; but
the _Añumbi_ has really a much simpler and lowlier motive. In the rich
Buenos Ayres soil all trees have a superabundance of foliage, and in the
slim poplar alone can the nest be placed where the bird can reach it
laden with building-material, without coming in contact with long
projecting twigs.
The nest of the _Añumbi_ is about two feet in depth, and from ten
to twelve inches in diameter, and rests in an oblique position
amongst the branches. The entrance is at the top, and a crooked or
spiral passage-way leads down to the lower extremity, where the
breeding-chamber is situated; this is lined with wool and soft grass,
and five white eggs are laid, varying considerably in form, some being
much more sharply pointed than others.
The nest, being so secure and comfortable an abode, is greatly coveted
by several other species of birds to breed in; but on this subject
I have already spoken in the account of the genus _Molothrus_. When
deprived of their nest, the birds immediately set to work to make a new
one; but often enough, without being ejected from the first they build a
second nest, sometimes demolishing the first work to use the materials.
I watched one pair make three nests before laying; another pair made two
nests, and after the second was completed they returned to the first and
there elected to remain. Two or three nests are sometimes seen on one
tree, and Azara says he has seen as many as six. Mr. Barrows observed
the bird at Concepcion, where it is very common, and writes that in that
district the nest is sometimes four feet long with an average diameter
of two feet, and that the same nest in some cases is used for several
seasons successively; also that several nests are sometimes joined
together and all occupied at the same time.