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, Jodo 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. Azara, 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 
