1872.] MR. W. H. HUDSON ON 1'Y UOCEl'H ALUS RUBINEUS. 809 



when not fluttering on the site of his future nest, or snapping up 

 some insect on the wing, he is eagerly pursuing other male Chu- 

 rinches, apparently bachelors, from tree to tree. At intervals he 

 repeats his remarkable little song, composed of a succession of 

 sweetly modulated metallic trills uttered on the wing. The bird 

 usually mounts upwards from thirty to forty yards, and, with wings 

 very much raised and rapidly vibrating, rises and drops almost 

 perpendicularly half a yard's space five or six times, appearing to 

 keep time to his notes in these motions. This song he frequently 

 utters in the night, but without leaving his perch ; and it then has a 

 most pleasing effect, as it is less hurried, and the notes seem softer 

 and more prolonged than when uttered by day. About a week after 

 the birds have come, when the trees are only beginning to display 

 their tender leaves, the nest is commenced. Strange to say, the 

 female is the sole builder ; for she now lays by her indifferent mien, 

 and the art and industry she displays more than compensate for the 

 absence of those beauties and accomplishments that make her mate 

 so pleasing to the sight and ear. The materials of which the nest 

 is composed are almost all gathered on trees ; they are lichens, 

 webs, and thistle-down : and the dexterity and rapidity with which 

 they are gathered, the skill with which she disposes them, the tire- 

 less industry of the little bird, who visits her nest a hundred times 

 an hour with invisible webs in her bill, are truly interesting to the 

 observer. The lichens firmly held together with webs, and smoothly 

 disposed with the tops outside, give to the nest the colour of the 

 bark it is built on. 



After the Churiuche's nest is completed, the Ventiveo (Pitungus 

 bellicosus) and the common Blackbird (Molothrusbonariensis) are the 

 troublers of their peace. The first of these sometimes carries off the 

 nest bodily to use it as material in building its own ; the female Black- 

 bird is ever on the look out for a receptacle for her eggs. Seldom, 

 however, does she succeed in gaining admittance to the Churinche's 

 nest, as he is extremely vigilant and violent in repelling intruders. 

 But his vigilance at times avads not ; the subtle bird has watched and 

 waited till, seizing a moment when the little scarlet tyrant is off his 

 guard, she drops her surreptitious egg into his nest. When this 

 happens the Churinches immediately leave their nest. The nest is 

 sometimes lined with feathers, but usually with thistle-down ; the 

 eggs are four, pointed, and spotted at the great end with black ; 

 usually each egg has also a few large grey spots. The young are at 

 first grey, marked with pale rufous, but soon become entirely grey, 

 like the females. In about a month's time the belly of the males 

 begins to assume a pale mauve-red ; this spreads upwards towards 

 the breast and throat ; and finally the crest also takes on this colour. 

 The Churinches raise two broods in a season — but if the nest is de- 

 stroyed, will lay as many as four times. 



The Churinche is the first of our summer visitors to leave us. As 

 early as the end of January, and so soon as the young of the second 

 brood are able to feed themselves, the adidts disappear. Their 

 going is not gradual, but they all vanish at once. The departure of 



