234 To the River Plate and Back 



in their talons, insert their long curved beaks, and with 

 a quick movement pull out the snail, which they devour, 

 w r hile letting the shell fall to the ground. No owner of 

 an oyster-stand in Fulton Market could be quicker 

 or more adroit in getting the fish out of the shell than 

 these small cousins of the eagle. 



On all occasions when going into the country I took 

 with me my nets and other material for collecting in- 

 sects. Of these I obtained a number, but the season was 

 still too early for many species. Just as April is not the 

 best time in the Middle States to collect our most 

 interesting insects, so in the vicinity of Buenos Aires, 

 October is not the most favorable month for the ento- 

 mologist. The collecting grew better as the weeks 

 passed by, and just before I left it seemed that many of 

 the more showy insects were taking wing. Butterflies 

 and moths were scarce even on sunny days, and but 

 few species appeared. Insects of other orders were more 

 numerous, but most of my captures represented the 

 smaller diptera, hymenoptera, and coleoptera. Dr. 

 Carlos Bruch has in his possession a wonderful collec- 

 tion of the beetles of Argentina, most beautifully 

 arranged, and accurately determined. I spent a part 

 of an afternoon, after the Museum had closed, in look- 

 ing at his treasures. He has published a number of very 

 valuable papers upon the beetles of the country and has 

 illustrated them with fine drawings executed by himself. 

 The good Doctor is not only a scientist, but also an 

 artist. He has latterly taken up the work of studying 

 the ants of the region. Of these there are a great many 

 species, which have very curious habits, and are 

 endowed with wonderful intelligence. The hymenop- 

 tera the ants, bees, and wasps constitute the aristoc- 

 racy of learning in the insect world. They appear to 



