OVEN-BIRD 197 



OVEN-BIRD 



Furnarius rufus 



Above earthy brown, with a slight rufescent tinge, wing-feathers 

 blackish, margined with pale brown ; whole of the outer secondaries 

 pale brown, like the back ; tail and upper tail-coverts bright ferruginous 

 brown ; below white, breast and flanks and under wing-coverts pale 

 sandy-brown ; under surface of the wing with a broad sandy bar 

 across the basal portion ; length 8 to 9 inches. 



THE Red Oven-bird is an extremely well-known 

 species in Argentina, and, where found, a great 

 favourite on account of its familiarity with man, 

 its loud, ringing, cheerful voice, and its wonderful 

 mud nest, which it prefers to build near a human 

 habitation, often on a cornice, a projecting beam, 

 or on the roof of the house itself* 



It is a stout little bird, with a slender, slightly- 

 curved beak nearly an inch in length, and strong 

 legs suited to its terrestrial habits* The upper 

 plumage is uniform rufous-brown in colour, brightest 

 on the tail ; the under surface very light brown* 

 It ranges throughout the Argentine Republic to 

 Bahia Blanca in the south, and is usually named 

 Hornero or Casera (Oven-bird or Housekeeper) ; in 

 Brazil, Joao de los barrios (John of the Mud-puddles) 

 or John Clay, as Richard Burton translates it* In 

 Paraguay and Corrientes it is Alonzo Garcia or else 

 Alonzito, the affectionate diminutive* Asara, that 

 sensible naturalist, losing his mind for a moment, 

 solemnly says that he can give no reason for such a 

 name ! He might have found the reason in his own 



