(RED THORN-BIRD.)
+Phacellodomus ruber+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 467 (Paraná,
Cordova); _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 65; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877,
p. 183 (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ viii. p.
210 (Entrerios). +Phacellodomus maculipectus+, _Cab. J. f. O._
1883, p. 109 (?).
_Description._--Above olive-brown, front chestnut; tail brownish
chestnut; beneath whitish, throat, breast, and flanks washed and
mottled with bright reddish brown; under wing-coverts and inner
margins of wing-feathers bright cinnamon; bill and feet horn-colour:
whole length 7·3 inches, wing 2·6, tail 3·2. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ Argentina.
This is a common species throughout the eastern portion of the
Argentine country, and extends as far south as the southern boundary
of the Buenos Ayrean province.
It is resident, living in pairs in places where there are scattered
thorny trees and bushes, and is never found in deep woods. It never
attempts to conceal itself, but, on the contrary, sits exposed on a bush
and will allow a person to approach within three or four yards of it.
Nor has it the restless manner of most Synallaxine birds which live in
the same places with it, but moves in a slow deliberate way, and spends
a great deal of time sitting motionless on its perch, occasionally
uttering its call or song, composed of a series of long, shrill,
powerful notes in descending scale and uttered in a very leisurely
manner. It builds a large oblong nest of sticks, about two feet deep,
and placed obliquely among the thorny twigs of a bush or low tree. Mr.
Barrows writes:--"There are commonly two cavities in the nest, one being
half open to the weather, and forming the entrance, the other further
back and connected with the former by only a short passage-way, which in
many cases is reduced to a simple hole through a broad partition, which
alone separates them." The eggs are four and of a pure white.
The name commonly used for this species is founded on the "_Anumbé
roxo_" of Azara's 'Apuntamientos'; but the description given there of
the bird's nesting-habits shows either that some other species was
meant--perhaps _P. sibilatrix_, Döring--or that the nesting-habits of
a different bird have been assigned to _P. ruber_.