CONURUS PATAGONUS. 



41 



276. CONURUS PATAGONUS (Vieill.). 

 (PATAGONIAN PARROT.) 



Conurus patagonus, Burm. La-Plata JReise, ii. p. 441 ; Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. 

 p. Ill; Scl. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 549 (Rio Negro), et 1873, p. 761; Durn- 

 fordj Ibis, 1877, p. 180 (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 1O5. Female similar. 



Hab. Argentina and Patagonia. 



This Parrot , called in La Plata the Bank- or Burro wing-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 Parana 

 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 gradu- 

 ally 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 Empe- 

 trum 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 



