Description.—Black; whole head and neck all round, and upper breast and thighs scarlet; bill and feet black: total length 9·5 inches, wing 4·5, tail 4·0. Female similar. Young uniform black.
Hab. Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina.
Azara named this species Tordo negro cabeza roxa; it is also called Boyero (ox-herd) by country people, from its note resembling the long whistle of a drover; and sometimes Chisel-bill, from the peculiar conformation of the beak, which is long, straight, and has a broad fine point like a chisel. In both sexes the plumage of the head and neck is scarlet, of an exceedingly brilliant tint, all other parts intense black. These birds are lively, active, and sociable, going in flocks of from half-a-dozen to thirty individuals; they remain all the year, and inhabit the marshes, from which they seldom wander very far, but seek their insect food in the soft decaying rushes. They are common on the swampy shores of the Plata, and when seen at a distance, perched in their usual manner on the summits of the tall rushes, their flame-coloured heads shine with a strange glory above the sere sombre vegetation of the marshes. The long whistling note above mentioned is their only song, but it varies considerably, and often sounds as mellow and sweet as the whistle of the European Blackbird.
The nest is an ingenious structure of dry grasses, fastened to the upright stems of an aquatic plant, three or four feet above the water. The eggs are four, in size and form like those of the English Song-Thrush, spotted somewhat sparsely with black on a light blue ground.
The young birds are entirely black at first, and afterwards assume on the head and neck a pale terra-cotta red, which gradually deepens to vivid scarlet.
[102.] PSEUDOLEISTES VIRESCENS (Vieill.).
(YELLOW-BREASTED MARSH-BIRD.)
Pseudoleistes virescens, Hudson, P. Z. S. 1870, p. 549, et 1874, p. 156 (Buenos Ayres); Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 37; Durnford, Ibis, 1877, p. 175, et 1878, p. 59 (Buenos Ayres); Gibson, Ibis, 1880, p. 31 (Buenos Ayres); White, P. Z. S. 1882, p. 602 (Buenos Ayres); Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl. viii. p. 135 (Entrerios); Scl. Cat. B. xi. p. 352. Leistes anticus, Burm. La-Plata Reise, ii. p. 491 (Paraná).
Description.—Above and below dark olive-brown; lesser upper wing-coverts, under wing-coverts, and middle of the abdomen yellow; bill black; feet dark brown: total length 9·5 inches, wing 4·6, tail 3·8. Female similar.
Hab. S. Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina.