Sydney Porter—Notes from South America



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stalked along. These birds are a lovely rich raspberry pink, looking

almost as though they had been dyed, the lesser wing coverts, tail

coverts, and a tuft at the base of the neck are brilliant carmine, the

feathers being hair-like and resemble spun glass, by a strange contrast

the tail is orange buff, the feathers having red shafts. The head of

this bird is bare of feathers and the skin wrinkled : this rather detracts

from its beauty and give the head a rather vulturine look. I was told

that although the birds had been in the gardens for many years, they

had never attempted to nest; which in a w^ay was not to be wondered at,

as there was no suitable nesting site in the way of a natural reed bed.

I thought I was fortunate in being able to secure a pair of these beautiful

birds but I lost the male in the awful holocaust at Rosario, but more of

that anon. These Spoonbills lose their red in captivity and never

regain it even though fed on live food ; after the moult the birds are a

dirty pale pink, and they never seem to regain the spun-glass-like

feathers.


There were a good many Flamingos in the Gardens. These, too, were

at liberty, but I suppose they must have been pinioned. They were

in perfect condition and looked very lovely, either wading in the

water, almost submerged, or standing beneath the great sub-tropical

trees. These birds, like the Spoonbills, retained their red plumage.

I only noticed the one species, P. chilensis, though there are two species

in South America, the other being P. andenus, which is the most

beautiful of all the Flamingos.


I noticed a few specimens of that strange, Goose-like Swan, the

Coscoroba Swan. I saw but few of these birds in the Argentine, and

should judge that they are not common. The legs, feet, and beak of

these birds look as though they had been painted with a very crude kind

of brilliant pink paint. There were only five specimens of the Black¬

necked Swan. I think this species has greatly decreased ; once it was

found in countless thousands. I very much regretted to see at Rio

Grande do Sul in Brazil that there was quite a large industry in the

skins of this species and at a local industries exhibitioij was shown a

great number of articles made from the skins of these birds, from which

the feathers had been removed, leaving the down. There were powder

puffs, women’s jackets, bedspreads, trimmings for dresses, etc. I was



