A Trip to Tucuman 



263 



tail in the form of the letter V. Its singular appear- 

 ance at once attracted attention. It is said to possess 

 the same intrepid and pugnacious disposition which 

 characterizes the King-bird, and will fearlessly attack 

 hawks, or other predaceous birds, and harry them, 

 until they fly away, screaming for mercy. The Teru- 

 teru, or Argentine Lapwing, was everywhere to be 

 seen, standing in quiet 

 contemplation upon 

 one leg, or else rapidly 

 running about, or 

 standing and flapping 

 its black and white 

 wings, much as a hack- 

 man on a cold winter 

 day will wave his arms 

 and beat his shoulders 

 to restore circulation. 

 What the object of this 

 action on the part of 

 the bird may be I do 

 not know. 



The train was mov- 

 ing too rapidly most of 

 the time to allow me, 

 though I strained my eyes, to make out the flower- 

 ing plants which here and there were blooming along- 

 side of the track. I noted thickets of fennel, 

 cardoon, and poison hemlock completely filling for 

 long distances the right-of-way between the ends of the 

 ties, and the wire-fences which separate the property of 

 the railroad from the adjoining land. A few miserable 

 specimens of Erythrina cristagalli, which survived on 

 the edge of a pool, which the railway at one point 



Fig. 26 Scissor - tailed Fly - catcher 

 (Milvulus tyrannus) . i nat. size. 



