Dendrocolaptine birds are, as a rule, builders of big nests and very noisy; H. gutturalis is, I believe, the loudest screamer and greatest builder of the family. Male and female live together in the same locality all the year; the young, when able to fly, remain with their parents till the breeding-season, so that the birds are found occasionally in pairs, but more frequently in families of five or six individuals. When feeding they scatter about, each bird attaching itself to a large bush, scraping and prodding for insects about the roots; and at intervals one of the old birds, ascending a bush, summons the others with loud shrill cries, on which they all hurry to the place of meeting, and from the summits of the bushes burst forth in a piercing chorus, which sounds at a distance like screams of hysterical laughter. At one place, where I spent some months, there were some bushes over a mile and a quarter from the house I lived in, where these birds used to hold frequent meetings, and in that still atmosphere I could distinctly hear their extravagant cries at this distance. After each performance they pursue each other, passing from bush to bush with a wild jerky flight, and uttering harsh angry notes.
They select a low, strong, wide-spreading bush to build in; the nest, which is made of stout sticks, is perfectly spherical and four to five feet deep, the chamber inside being very large. The opening is at the side near the top, and is approached by a narrow arched gallery, neatly made of slender sticks resting along a horizontal branch, and about fourteen inches long. This peculiar entrance, no doubt, prevents the intrusion of snakes and small mammals. So strongly made is the nest that I have stood on the dome of one and stamped on it with my foot without injuring it in the least, and to demolish one I had to force my gun-barrel into it, then prize it up by portions. I examined about a dozen of these enormous structures, but they were all met with before or after the laying season, so that I did not see the eggs.
[214.] ANABAZENOPS OLEAGINEUS, Scl.
(OILY-GREEN ANABAZENOPS.)
Anabazenops rufo-superciliatus, White, P. Z. S. 1882, p. 613 (Catamarca). Anabazenops oleagineus, Scl. P. Z. S. 1883, p. 654.
Description.—Above and beneath dark olive-green; lores, superciliaries, and spots on the sides of the head yellowish white; wings blackish, the outer webs of the feathers olive-brown; tail bright chestnut; throat whitish yellow, on the lower part the yellow feathers tipped with olive; breast and belly spotted with same colour as the throat; bend of wing, under wing-coverts, and margins of inner webs of secondaries fulvous yellow; bill and feet blackish: whole length 6·2 inches, wing 3·2, tail 3·0. Female similar.
Hab. South Brazil and Argentina.
White obtained examples of this species on the Sierra of Totoral. He says it is a very wild bird and exceedingly scarce.