Life in La Plata 231 



them, as to have done so would have led me through a 

 lot of deep mire. I am sure their fright was occasioned 

 by a hawk, which was prowling around, and which I 

 saw afterwards alighting upon a stake with one of the 

 songsters in his talons, which he proceeded to tear up 

 and devour after the manner of hawks. 



While I was engaged in studying the ways of the 

 Seed-finches, my attention was attracted to the per- 

 formances of a couple of Guiras (Guira guira). These 

 birds, which belong to the family of the cuckoos, are 

 about sixteen inches in length, ten of the sixteen inches 

 being composed of the tail, which when the bird is on 

 the wing is spread out like a fan. The tail-feathers are 

 conspicuously colored, the two in the middle being 

 dark brown, while the others are yellow at the base, 

 glossy green in the middle, and white at the end. 

 Their bills are red and they have a crest of reddish 

 brown feathers upon their heads. The back and rump 

 are white, as is also the breast, save for a few blackish 

 streaks; the wings are blackish, marked with white. 

 Altogether the bird is rather conspicuously colored. 

 It is a very noisy fowl. It seems to have the habit of 

 flying about and pitching on the tops of trees and hang- 

 ing on the ends of branches uttering a succession of 

 harsh cries and curious discordant notes, which suggest 

 unhappiness and general discontent. There were some 

 of these birds which haunted the grove about the Ob- 

 servatory, and at sunrise they used to make a great 

 racket, but though I got a good view of them once or 

 twice, and often heard their cries, I had my best chance 

 to watch them in the willow-grove, where the two of 

 w r hich I have spoken remained after the Seed-finches 

 took their flight. Hudson tells us that Azara, who 

 wrote more than a hundred years ago, said these 



